A Price To Pay
by SandmanAndKitsune
Summary: “Are you sure about this?” the blonde teen stared at the raven man. “Just give me the money, and you can do whatever you want to me. I’ll be yours.” Naruto’s family caught in huge debts, in order to pay it, he sold himself to a rich Uchiha. Yaoi, SasuNaru
1. Chapter 1 : Tiny Bits Of Happiness

**Disclaimer :** I live to write the fanfic, not the original story, because if I am, all the hot boys will be _mine_.

**Summary :** "Are you sure about this?" the blonde man stared straight to the raven. "Just give me the money, then you can do whatever you want to me afterwards. I'll be yours, from head to toe." Naruto's family caught in huge debts, in order to pay it, he sold himself to a rich Uchiha. Yaoi, SasuNaru.

**Chapter 1 : Tiny Bits of Happiness**

"Oi, Naruto! You done already?" shouted a black haired teen.

The blonde who was running toward the café entrance, stopped, and turns his body around to face Kiba, "Yeah! I made a promise to my brothers and sisters that I'll play with them as soon as I'm done with work!" he said, grinning widely, before he started to sprint again in the opposite direction.

When the glass door opened, he rushed out, but another person came, and as result, they bumped onto each other. The blonde's nose hit the man's firm chest, and he rubbed it gently while bowing his body apologetically, "I'm so sorry, sir! I was in a hurry." He said, without looking up to see what the man look like.

He dashed again, passing the man's side. _Chirei, Yuurei, Ichiro, Kazuna, and Yuki were waiting for me, I gotta hurry!_ He thought, not caring for anything else.

The man he bumped to, watched the blonde as he runs across the busy streets and then disappeared within the crowd. He caressed his chest where the blonde teen struck him, and when he intended to enter the café, a hand tapped his shoulder.

He turned his body to found a silver haired man in black formal suit and wearing a turtle mask, stood behind him with his only visible eye curved upward. "It looks like I'm not late, right, Sasuke?" he said in cheery voice, the raven man shrugged his shoulder, and the silver haired man's hand fell down in process.

"You're late by ten minutes." He said in icy tone, checking his watch.

"Aww, you don't have to be so strict! Please spare me this time!" the man whined, but the raven man ignored him and entered the café.

After the two of them seated in a comfortable spot, the raven haired man glanced at the streets where the blonde who bumped him, disappeared a while ago. _That boy must be working here_, he thought, somewhat taken a slight interest toward the blonde boy.

The manager of the café, a man named Genma, approaches their table. "Welcome, Uchiha-sama, what would you like to drink?" He asked politely. The Uchiha spared a glance at him, before replying;

"As usual, a cup of plain black coffee, without sugar." He said simply.

---------------------------------------------------

The blonde took a seat on a wooden bench at the side of the park. He was tired. His brothers and sisters had made him ran around so many times, that he felt his knees started to hurt. He watched as the children playing in the playground.

Chirei and Yuurei are identical twin brothers, both of them had the same emerald green hair, the same amethyst eyes, the same pale skin, and the same height and figure, they are nine years old. It is so hard to tell them apart, but somehow Naruto was able to. They were building a sand castle together.

Ichiro is the oldest, he is turning twelve this year, he has spiky strawberry blond hair, his eyes were chocolate-colored, his skin was tan like Naruto, he is quite tall and slender and he wears a glasses. He acts as the big brother in their group, and it often helped Naruto. He was pushing the swings the other two were on.

Kazuna is a pretty ten year old girl with long pale blond hair, her eyes were deep green, and her skin was milky and flawless. She was playing on the swings with the youngest child, Yuki.

Yuki is the youngest of four others, she turned five year old this year. Like her name, she has snowy white hair, her eyes as black as coal, and her skin was also pale. She is small, but has two adorable pink chubby cheeks, she is a shy girl and really attached to the oldest blonde.

All of them are orphans.

They were left by their parents at the front door of the orphanage Naruto was raised in. The owner of the orphanage is a kind man named Iruka Umino, he gladly accept all of them and raised them up until now, so to Naruto, they are like siblings who suffered the same fate as his.

"Naruto-nii-chan! Shouted snowy haired girl, she ran toward the sitting blonde with her tiny legs. The blonde smiled at her, and outstretch his arms to greet her. She smiled sweetly as she tried to reach the blonde's hand. But suddenly her feet stumbled on a small rock, but before she fell, the blonde fetched her small body, and took her high up in the air.

"Now, Yuki, you must be more careful, you almost gave me a heart attack!" the blonde joked, swinging her around in the air, the little girl giggling happily.

"Nii-chan, what's a healt attack?" she asked innocently, the blonde laughed.

He brought her face close to his, and rubbed their noses together. "It means, Yuki has made me surprised!"

"Is that good?" she asked again, but the blonde just smiled at her.

"Yuki! Are you okay!?" shouted a sweet voice, it was Kazuna's. She headed toward the two of them with worried looks on her face. Behind her, the twin walking slowly toward them hand to hand, and Ichiro's mother-hen mode was activated.

"Oh my God, Yuki! You almost made my heart stop!" shouted Ichiro, he pulled her little sister into a tight hug. Kazuna too, joined him, and it turned to a group hug. _Man… Ichiro hang around Iruka way too much…_ the oldest blonde thought.

"Stop it, Ichi-nii and Kazu-nee you two…" Chirei said,

"…are embarrassing us!" and Yuurei concluded, and the two of them snickered evilly. The blonde punched their heads with his fists lightly, the two twins turned and glared at their oldest brother.

"Naru-nii, what are you…" Chirei starts,

"…hitting us for!?" Yuurei finishes the sentence again. The blonde snorted at them, slightly annoyed.

"Can you two stop talking one sentence separately? It's giving me a headache…" the blonde massaging his temples tiredly, and the twins shot daggers at him.

"But we love to…"

"…confuse you, because…"

"It was the funniest thing we have ever seen!!" the two of them said together, and ran away from the fuming blonde, giggling happily.

"Ah! Chirei, Yuurei! Don't go too far, you two might get lost!" shouted the worried Ichiro, he left Yuki in Kazuna's care, and then ran after his twin brothers.

The blonde sighed deeply, but smiled a real smile at them. He laughed when the twins tried to burry Ichiro with sands, then Kazuna approached them with angry shouts, while Yuki stared at them innocently in Naruto's arms. They may have no parents, or their parents abandoned them, but they are happy. All of them happy because they have each other, someone to hold on to, and a place to return to, called 'home'.

But that 'home' would soon be taken away from them.

--------------------------------------

A brunette man with a long scar running along his nose side to side, has been reading the letter he received this morning for the tenth times already. He clenched his fists on the round dining table, he let the letter slipped to the floor. Both of his hands clenched his head frustratingly, how can he tell the children about this

His body stiffened when he heard happy giggles and laughs coming from outside the house, he tried to regain his composure, and wore his usual warm smile. He goes to the front door to greet his children, while the letter was completely neglected on the floor.

"Iruka! We're home!" the blonde shouted, banging the door loudly with one hand, while the other hugging Yuki's hip. The hyperactive twins were bothering Ichiro again, while Kazuna tried to stop their pranks.

The door was finally opened by the smiling brunette, the twins rushed in first after saying; "Hello, Iruka-tousan!" together. Ichiro tried to scold at them, but failed miserably because the twins completely ignored him. Naruto handed Yuki to Kazuna's, since the little girl has fallen asleep.

Then Naruto turned his body to face the brunette, while grinning widely. The brunette gave him a forced smile, "So, how was your day?" he asked, trying to relax his nerves.

"It's fine! I got the manager let me go early, and I took the children to the playground park. They were happy, though the twins played pranks on Ichiro again, but it was a totally awesome day!" the blonde said cheerfully, but that made it harder for the brunette to tell them.

The blonde suddenly noticed the brunette's restless behavior; he looks like something was bothering him. "Iruka? What's wrong? You look nervous…" asked the blonde, he grew more suspicious when the Iruka started fidgeting.

"N-nothing's wrong! H-hahaha… by the way, I want to see what the children are up to, bye!" and the brunette quickly dashed in, then gone upstairs to the children's room. The blonde stared blankly at the spot he was standing before. _That's weird…_ he thought, while scratching the back of his head.

Then the awkward tension broke by his growling stomach, "Ah, I'm hungry… look after the kids was a tough job, it took a lot of energy. I wonder if Iruka keep some instant ramen at the kitchen?"

The blonde went to the kitchen, and started to look around searching for a cup ramen in the wooden drawer above the kitchen counter. He silently squealed in delight when he found one on the top level, but it's too far to reach. The blonde frowned, and he tried to stand on his toes stubbornly, _a bit more… a little more… _when he almost got his finger reached the cup ramen, he jumped a bit, and it caused the ramen cup fell down.

"Damn." He murmured, the ramen fell under the dining table, so the blonde crawling on his knees to reach it. But when he's about to grab the cup ramen, his sapphire eyes caught another thing laid on the floor.

It was a sheet of paper.

Out of curiosity, Naruto picked it with the ramen, and stood up. _Maybe it was Iruka's?_ He took a good look at it, and decided to read it a little. As his eyes went down and down, his eyebrows came together, and when he read the last paragraph, the ramen fell from his hand.

--------------------------------------------

Iruka has finished telling a bed time story for Yuki, and the other kids has fallen asleep too, even the hyperactive twins had grew tired and asleep while cuddle onto each other. The brunette yawned widely, he need to retire as well. He went outside the bedroom, and closed the door carefully so he wouldn't wake them.

When he entered his bedroom, the room was dark and he pushed the light switch on. He jumped surprised when he saw a glimpse of human shape wearing black sitting at the corner of his room. When he took a good look at it, his nerves calmed down. "Naruto, what are you doing here? You almost made my heart stop!"

The blonde merely stared straight to his eyes. Iruka gulped nervously, Naruto was serious, and he knew it. The blonde stood up, slowly approaching the stunned brunette with a letter he found in the kitchen in his hand.

"Iruka, what is this?" he demanded, and stop in front of the brunette.

Iruka looked at the paper Naruto was holding, it was the letter he received this morning. "Naruto where did you—oh, yes, the kitchen…" he finally remembered he left the paper in the kitchen.

"What is this, Iruka? This letter… is telling _us_ to move from this house? Why? Don't we live just fine all these years? Why is this—it's too sudden. Explain this to me, Iruka!" he demanded, his voice somewhat harsh.

The brunette sighed deeply. "Naruto, let's talk about this with cool head, okay? Let's take a sit first." The blonde complied, and he sat on the blue carpet, while Iruka on the bed.

"Naruto… you're mature enough to know this matter, that's why I wanted to tell you, but I couldn't bring my heart to." He paused, and then looked straight to the blonde's sky-blue eyes.

"The one that send us money every month has stopped his donation, our orphanage is poor, Naruto. Without the donation money, we can't pay the living expanses and the land tax. We haven't paid the tax for a few months now… and so, they sent us a letter that warns us to move out from this house within one month. And… we also owed a huge amount of money to the bank, debt collectors will soon come to collect our stuff. There is nothing I could do about it…" the brunette drowned his frustrated face into his hands.

The blonde found himself dumbfounded. That means… if they have to move from this orphanage, all of them would be separated to other random orphanages, and after all those years they had spent together as family… will disappear?

_No_. The blonde teen thought. _No, no, no, no, NO!! I won't let it happen!!_

The blonde stood up suddenly, startling the brunette man. He furrowed his eyebrows while his eyes shut in anger. Then his eyes snapped open as he turned his gaze toward the brunette, "No, Iruka. I won't let it happen, I _will not_ let them separate us. Not Yuki, not Ichiro, not Chirei and Yuurei, and not Kazuna. This orphanage is our home, you are our father, and the children are my siblings. I won't let them separate us, I just can't." he said in desperate voice.

He began walking toward the door, but before he left, he gave Iruka a last glance. "I will do anything to prevent it, I'll work myself to death if I had to." He said as he left the stunned brunette.

The blonde entered his room downstairs, his room was small, there are only a single bed, an old desk and chair, and a wooden drawer. But it's enough accommodation for him. He let himself fell on the bed, staring at the dark ceiling. _How can I manage to make enough money on time? I have only one month to go…_

He drowned his face in his palms, "…guess I have to work myself to death after all…" he murmured softly.

----------------------------

To be continued…

I know the theme is so common now, Naruto being Sasuke's slave and all, but I just want to try it out since I've never tried that, and I want to write different kinds of genres. And therefore, this story was born!

Review, please!! Tell me your opinion whether you like this story or not, am I unoriginal?, or do you like the story line? Please tell me in your review!

Ja, Mata Ne!


	2. Chapter 2 : The Last Option

Disclaimer : I'm ninety nine percent sure that I don't own Naruto. What about the remaining one percent? Aw, you guess it!

Hello, my dear readers! Thank you for your reviews! I'm so surprised when I received so many reviews saying that many people are interested in this story, thank you! Unlike my other stories, this story contains lots of drama, you can say that this is my first serious one, at least.

In case you're wondering, their ages are:  
Naruto-19  
Sasuke-26  
Kakashi-32  
Iruka-29

And yes, Genma is a bit OOC in this story, 'cause I can't think of anyone else…

Enjoy!!

**Chapter 2 : The Last Option  
**  
It's been two weeks since the blonde found out about the orphanage's condition. He had been working very hard each day, on seven different part-time jobs, day and night, in order to gain money faster. His body and mind eventually got really exhausted from his non-stop work, he would came home really late, and went again early in the morning, it made Iruka and the children really worried.

But it still wasn't enough.

Iruka had told him the total amount of debts they needed to pay soon; about fifty thousand dollars. It's certainly impossible to gain such a great amount of money within a month, even normal people who work full-time need years to finally have that much. It made the blonde fall into a deep abyss of despair.

The debt collector came yesterday, and Iruka had to give up his family treasure, a set of ruby jewelries his deceased mother owned. It hurt Naruto when he saw the brunette's tired expression, he couldn't stand it. The children noticed the negative tension around their foster father and brother, they tried to ask, but all they received were a sad smile from the blonde, and comforting words from their father. They knew that this matter isn't something they could understand, so they kept silent since then.

The blonde sat on the back door of the café he was working in, it was his break. He stared at a note book he was holding, written there were his total finances this week; he had gained around one thousand bucks, a surprising amount. But it still wasn't enough. He needed much more, but his body began to fail him. He could feel it. He already had two thick bags under his tired blue eyes, his body skinnier, and his mind often went blank.

He shook his head slightly. _I can't stop now, I need more money, even if all the bones in my body fall apart, I still have to work…_ the blonde entered the kitchen again, he stopped when he heard some worker chatting.

"…you watch the news this morning? The cops managed to find a slave dealer's hideout, the one that sell humans to be slaves!" a red haired girl said.

"Oh, that is so scary. How could anyone do that? I mean, it's so freaky how people are being sold like they are some kind of thing…" replied a brunette girl as she shudders.

The redhead girl tilted her head, "Well, they said some of them needed money to feed their family, so they sell themselves… I heard they were sold at a high price, and most of the people that bought them were rich. They often enjoy having a slave to toy with, eww…"

The blonde stiffened at the statement. Slaves sold at a high price…? People who sell themselves because they needed money for their family? Those conditions were awfully similar to himself, he thought. And he needed a great amount of money as soon as possible…

"Oi, Naruto! What are you spacing out for? The break was over five minutes ago, ya know!" said a black haired boy from behind him, tapping his shoulder.

The blonde turned his head over his shoulder, "Oh, Kiba. Sorry, I was just thinking about things… yeah, I'll get back to work." He said, forcing a smile. Then he put on his black semi-formal vest over his white long-sleeved shirt (like those cool host uniforms in expensive restaurants!), and went into the café.

When he was busy serving the food to the customers, the door bell rang, the blonde put on a friendly smile to greet the coming customers; a raven haired man entered the café alone. "Welcome, sir. May I show you the table?" he asked with a commercial smile adorning his face. The raven man nodded, and Naruto took him to a table near the window. When the blonde was about to ask what he would like to order, Genma, the café manager approached them hurriedly.

"Welcome, Uchiha-sama! Naruto-kun, you may go now, leave this to me." The blonde was curious why the manager seemed eager to handle the raven haired customer, but he silently complied with a nod, and left them.

He approached Kiba who was flirting with a young cook, Hinata. "Oi, Kiba! Why did Genma came all the way to serve that customer? It isn't his job!" he asked, while pointing toward the raven haired man.

The dog-teen narrowed his eyes to get better view, "Oh that? You don't know? That's Sasuke Uchiha, he owns this café, so it's only natural if Genma wants to get his attention." He explained.

The blonde raised his eyebrows. "Is he rich?" he asked.

Kiba looked at him in disbelief, "What? Are you retarded? All the people in our country know who Sasuke Uchiha is; he is a successful businessman despite his young age, he owns several big companies, industries, and a few linked cafés and expensive restaurants. Of course he's insanely rich!!" Kiba said matter-of-factly. The blonde didn't hear the dog boy's grumbles, his sapphire eyes locked on the raven haired man who was drinking a cup of coffee.

"So, he's really rich, huh…"

-------------------------------

"Naruto, are you okay?"

The blonde turned his body around to face a very worried co-worker. "Wh-what? Yeah, I'm fine, Haku." He gave a smile toward the pretty boy, then resumed his cleaning duty. But Haku, unconvinced by his words, crossed his hands against his chest with a frown on his face.

"But Naruto, your face looks so pale!" the pretty boy said again, but the blonde just kept smiling meekly at him without saying anything.

When Haku was about to talk again, the owner of the bar, Zabuza, approach them. "Haku, re-stock the imported wine from the storage to the bar, and arrange it. Uzumaki, clean the table and the bar counter, we're going to open inaround… thirty minutes again." And Haku, out of his duty, left the blonde, though still worried.

Naruto start to wipe the table's board with a cloth rag and a cleaning spray, his mind still roaming aimlessly, trying to figure out a way to make more money. After he finished his part-time job at the 'Red Fan' café in the late afternoon, he went to his next job, working as a waiter in a bar Zabuza owned, and after this, he still got to work again at a 24 hours mini market, then finally have some rest at home.

_My body's burning…_ the blonde placed his palm against his forehead, then he glanced on a wide mirror hung on the wall. It reflected a skinny blonde teen, with two heavy bags under his tired eyes, unruly golden hair, and his face near as white as sheet. Haku was right; he looked like some kind of a sick ghost now.

The blonde sighed, and then shook his head fiercely. _No time to think about that, just concentrate and do your work…  
_  
He tried to wipe some black spot on a round table, the dirty spot wouldn't disappear, so he narrowed his eyes. But his vision began to blur; the tables, the rag, and the whole room began to spin around before his eyes, Naruto grew dizzy and tottered a few steps back, his palm pressed tightly against his temples. Suddenly, slight pain stung his head, and unconsciously led him to bring his other hand to clench his head. The rag and spray fell to the floor, creating a loud noise that echoed all over the empty room, but the blonde couldn't comprehend any sound right now.

No one was around that time, Haku was at the wine storage, and Zabuza in the back room. Naruto fell on his knees, his hands still clenching his head tightly. His breathing hitched, and his body shaking slightly, his condition was nowhere near fine, the blonde knew, but he refused to lose to his own body.

He tried to calm his nerves, hoping that it would abate the pain he felt in his head. As time passed, the pain disappeared gradually. After he felt better, Naruto stood up, his hands no longer on his head. _Finally_, he thought, and bent down his body to reach the cloth rag and spray on the floor.

_"…you watch the news this morning? The cops managed to find a slave dealer's hideout, the one that sells humans to be slaves!"  
_  
His hand stiffened. He brought up his head to look around the bar, but no one was there except himself, he shook his head, his mind was starting to play tricks on him, damn. Naruto resumed leaning his hand down to reach the rag.

_"Oh, that is so scary. How could anyone do that? I mean, it's so freaky how people are being sold like they are some kind of thing…" replied a brunette girl as she shudders._

The redhead girl tilted her head, "Well, they said some of them needed money to feed their family, so they sell themselves… I heard they were sold at a high price, and most of the people that bought them were rich and. They often enjoy having a slave to toy with, eww…"

The blonde shot his head up, his head quickly turned around, trying to find where the voice came from. But none, he's still the only one in the room. Naruto's face turned into a hard expression, was that noise coming from his own head?

He stood there silently.

_A slave… _Was the last thing he thought, before Haku returned with a crate full of wine.

----------------------

By the time he arrived home, it was already 1:13 A.M., using his duplicate keys, he opened the front door and went in, closing the door afterwards. The house was silent and dark inside, the children must be already be asleep. Naruto almost stumbled on his way to the kitchen, he wanted to drink some fresh water before crashing his body on the hard mattress of his bedroom.

He drew out a bottle of mineral water from the refrigerator, then sat on the chair. Naruto opened the lid, and start to drink the water, while his mind traveled elsewhere. He only has two weeks left, and the total of his finances plus Iruka's, hasn't got any where near their target.

But that doesn't mean he wants to quit, he had promised to Iruka and himself that he would do anything in order to pay the debts and protect his family. His only remaining happiness in this world. But how?

The scene in the café before crossed inside his head. Become a slave to someone? What an insane way to gain money, not to mention to give his freedom caged inside a thick prison of misery. Naruto may be an orphan, but he has a dream like any other normal kids have; he wants to have his own store someday, school the children to college, buy Iruka a nice house, and settle down with a beautiful wife.

Being a slave meant that he'll lose all of his freedom and dreams, to serve as a lowly servant for some rich and elite bastard… this is… this is just too cruel, and a hard sacrifice to make. However, Naruto was still confused whether to give up and have the children and Iruka taken away from him, or to chose the hard way, but also the most possible way to gain enough money in time…

The blonde's head began to hurt again. _I think too much_, he thought, then he stood up and began to walk toward his bedroom, he had to wake up at five in the morning to go to work again.

When he opened his bedroom door, he was surprised to see that the light was on, and two bundles of emerald hair greeted him with a hug on both sides, they were in pajamas.

"Naru-nii!!" Chirei said, hugging the blonde's right side.

"You're home!" Yuurei shouted, he hug the blonde's left side.

The blonde blinked his eyes in surprise, "Chi, Yuu!? What are you two doing in my room this late? Aren't you two supposed to sleep in your own room?" the blonde said in confusion, the twins grinned at him and let go of their death grip.

"We have been waiting for you!"

"We wanted to sleep with you tonight!" they grinned cheerily together.

"You two were waiting for me? Without sleep?" the twins shook their heads. "No, we were asleep before you came, and woke up when we heard your foot steps!" Chirei explained, and Yuurei nodded with a grin. The blonde couldn't help but to smile at his twin brother's behavior, he hugged the two, and dragged them into the room, after closing the door.

"Okay, I'll change my clothes first, and you two can wait for me in the bed." The blonde said, and the twins happily complied. They lay on the bed, while Naruto changed into comfortable wear; a casual shirt and a pair of short pants.

The bed was narrow, there was almost no space left for the blonde to fit, so the twins nuzzled themselves on the blonde's torso on each side. The blonde couldn't move in this position, but he gave in for his brothers' comfort, he wrapped his arms on each of their bodies, his hands gently caressing their soft emerald locks.

"Naru-nii?" Chirei brought his face up to face the blonde, Yuurei did the same.

"Hmm?" the blonde brought his gaze toward one of his little brother.

"Why do you work so long? You always come home late, and go again before we awake… And you hardly play with us anymore…" Chirei said,

"…and Iruka-tousan is acting weird, he seems really busy, and there are many men in nice suits visiting him, but tousan didn't look happy…" Yuurei follows, the twins look up to the blonde in question.

_Debt collectors… they come more often these days… _the blonde thought. He gave the twins an assuring smile, while his hands still caressed their hair. "No, it's okay, nothing's wrong. I'm just so busy with my jobs, I'm sorry, but I still can't play with you as much as before…"

The twins pouted, they didn't seem to like the issue that their oldest brother couldn't accompany them. "But Naru-nii, we missed you so much! Ichi-nii, Kazu-nee, and Yuki-chan too!" this time Yuurei talked first, Chirei nodded furiously.

"Yeah! And you know what? Yuki cried today, she really  
missed you and wouldn't stop crying until she fell asleep…  
Ichi-nii and Kazu-nee even had to sleep with her to make  
her calm down." Chirei explained, and the blonde was   
dumbfounded.

Yuki cried? While he was trying so hard to work, he made his siblings feel sad, what kind of brother is he? In order to gain money, he sacrificed his time and attention to his work, and as the result, he neglected his siblings…

Chirei and Yuurei both snuggled against the blonde's broad shoulders, they missed the blonde so much, that they waited for him to come back at his bedroom. "Naru-nii, promise to play with us again?" the twins stared at him pleadingly, their amethyst orbs tearing.

The blonde furrowed his eyebrows, he couldn't refuse their pleas, and he didn't dare to break their innocent heart with empty promises or lies. "Yes, I promise, I'll try to manage it, now let's sleep." The blonde said, he gave a soothing smile at them.

The twins yawned widely, and after they bade the blonde good night, they fell asleep right away. Naruto had yet to sleep, his mind still working restlessly.

_I can't…_ he thought, as he shut his eyes forcefully.

_I can't let them suffer anymore… I'm so selfish, I couldn't even make them happy, while they always gave me happiness, I_… he paused. He opened his eyes, and staring at the dark ceiling.

"I'll do it."

---------------

To be continued.

I keep writing sad scenes… because the genre is romance/drama, I think it's fine. What do you think? Do you like the story? This chap is about Naruto's doubts to choose the right decision, I think it's only natural to have doubts when you are supposed to make hard decisions. In the next chap, Sasuke's turn to show up. Look forward to it, and send me tons o' reviews, please!

Ja, Mata Ne!


	3. Chapter 3 : A Fair Price

**Disclaimer :** I do not own Naruto, perhaps if I keep praying, I will someday!

Good day, readers! –tears- so many people liked this story, I'm so glad! Thanks for all of your wonderful reviews, it sent me right to heaven (I'm still alive, though) when I read them.

Enjoy!!

**Chapter 3 : A Fair Price**

Naruto woke up at five in the early morning. His body was stiff and sore from his sleep with two weights pressed tightly all night on each of his sides, and his immobility to move his body, caused his arms to go temporarily numb. It's a good thing that he works in labor every day, it made his body stronger than it looked, and the numbness would probably be gone after an hour or two. He stirred a bit with the twins in each of his arms, he lifted Yuurei and moved to slide slowly and careful, to not wake Chirei.

After he got off the bed completely, he placed Yuurei on the bed again, beside Chirei. The twins unconsciously brought their hands on to each other, both snuggling closer. The blonde laughed softly, the twins were always together as long as he remembered, never have he seen them fight or go anywhere alone, always the two of them together, they're like having one mind in two bodies. And also as pranksters, they're unbeatable.

Naruto pulled the sheets to cover their small bodies, and gave each of them a gentle kiss on the forehead, before he took a bath and prepared to go to his first job.

After a while he was fully dressed with a plain white sleeve-less top and a pair of denim jeans which were torn on each of the knees, he slung his old back pack over his shoulder. Naruto glanced at the sleeping twins, his blue eyes softened at the peaceful sight.

_I'll make sure I get the money today…_ he thought, as he turned his body around, opened the door carefully, not to wake them, and then closed it silently.

His mind had set on one thing, and no one can change it. _Then I could fulfill my promise to all of you, Chirei, Yuurei, Ichiro, Kazuna, Yuki…  
_  
_I promise._

----------------

Sasuke Uchiha woke up at seven, on his soft and comfortable king-sized bed. His head was hurting from his intense and long meetings yesterday, about the new garment factory development, the new linked café opening, and some other formality stuff. As one of the Uchiha family heirs, he had to work extremely hard to expand the Uchiha Company. And his older brother had gone to meet with the business partners abroad, so he was left with all the responsibility and work here.

After having a nice shower, then he had a delicious breakfast made by professional cooks; two slices of bread with some marmalade jam, a bowl of salad, and a cup of unsweetened Earl Gray tea. While he was enjoying his breakfast, his butler approached him.

"Uchiha-sama, there is a letter for you." The old butler said, extending his hand that held a dark blue envelope on his palm.

The younger Uchiha accepted the letter, and dismissed the butler. What is this? From Kabuto Yakushi… the successor of Yakushi Group? Out of curiosity, Sasuke opened the envelope carefully, drawing out the sheet of paper, and then reading it afterwards. A pair of onyx eyes traveled up and down the letter, his eyebrows furrowed and focused. A mix between amusement and consideration could be seen on his face after he finished reading.

The letter is indeed an invitation, however, not of some ordinary snobbish party, this is an invitation for… an auction. Where the richest people from all over this country will gather in one place, to fight over expensive, rare antiques, not literarily physically fight, it meant fight for pride and to show off how much wealth they have using money, of course. Some meaningless activity again, the Uchiha thought, he didn't have time for some ridiculous activity such as this. When he was about to toss the letter somewhere else, he paused.

If the richest people from all over the country are going to attend this auction, then maybe he could get some advantages from this… Maybe some talk about business and other things might result in new investors to his company…

He started to re-think this rare opportunity. This invitation is for two people, but it didn't mean it had to be a couple, maybe Sasuke could ask his cousin, Kakashi Hatake, to accompany him? Besides, before the auction, there was going to be a formal dinner and some drinks, and the auction took place in the ballroom of a five star hotel, how convenient…

The Uchiha smirked to himself. Yes, this would be a good opportunity, though he didn't plan to participate in the auction, but maybe there would be some things he was interested in buying, he had better bring some cash too, just in case. Sasuke drew out his cellphone, and dialed Kakashi's number.

"Hello, Kakashi, this is me. Do you have some free time around 6 P.M.? … … … I've got the invitation… … … … alright, I'll pick you up tonight at six, bye." And it was settled, at six in the afternoon, he'd go with Kakashi to attend the auction.

After all, what could possibly happen there?

-----------------------

Naruto had skipped his jobs, he needed to, if he wanted to get some help he needed to reach his goal. He roamed the busy streets, searching for someone he knew could help him, someone he knew well from the past. The blonde checked his watch, 11:37 A.M., at this hour, he was probably at the usual place…

From downtown, Naruto turned his destination to Godchild Street.

Along the street, Naruto walked cautiously, because the street was full of fierce rascal gangs, beggars, thieves, and some other kinds akin to them, normal people usually avoided crossing Godchild Street, it was pretty much known as the dark side of this city. The blonde dared to enter this street, because he was also one of them before, and he knew the one in charge here really well.

While he was walking, some kids around Ichiro's age, were running and playing a bit far in front of him, one of them, the smallest boy, bumped to the blonde, and fell on his ass.

"Sorry, mister!" he said, as he rubbed his swollen hips, then tried to get up, but failed miserably.

Naruto bent down to help him, and the another kid just stood behind the blonde, smirking mischievously. When the blonde grabbed the smallest boy's hand, the kid behind him did his job, leaning his hand fast to fetch the blonde's wallet from his back pocket.

But another hand was faster than his, grabbing his arm before he could reach the wallet. Naruto's hand grabbed the smallest boy's hand and helped him until he stood firm on the road again, while the other leaned backwards to grab the kid behind him, he did it all without turning his gaze from the fallen boy.

The boy behind him, and the other kids mouths gapedin shock, as was the small boy Naruto helped. The blonde turned his body around and smirked, still grabbing the kid's arm.

"Amateurs like you can't beat the real one, you know. And the method you used was rather old…" he said triumphantly, one of the boys, the most far back, recognized the blonde.

That voice, blond hair, tan skin, and particular whiskered cheeks… it's him! A boy wearing goggles as a headband and a long dark blue scarf slung around his neck, almost squealed in delight, "Naruto nii-chan!!" he cried, as he ran toward the blonde.

The boy tackled the blonde teen to the ground. Naruto let out a loud yelp of pain when the back of his head crashed against the hard sidewalk. When he opened his blue eyes, his vision blurred, but he tried to focus his sight. A familiar face gradually become visible, when Naruto recognized that face, his blue eyes widened, "Konohamaru!" the blonde shouted in cheer. And the boy who pinned him grinned widely at him.

After the both of them got up, Konohamaru and his friends apologized to the blonde. Naruto just laughed, and said it was okay, and told them not to mind it. "Naruto nii-chan, it's been a while! I've really missed you!" said the hyperactive boy cheerfully.

"Yeah, I missed you too, it's been two months… Sorry I hardly visit you anymore, I've busy at the moment." Konohamaru shook his head furiously.

"No, it's okay! By the way… how's Kazuna-chan doing?" he asked, suddenly acting shyly, a small blush creeping onto his face. The blonde chuckled by the young boy's behavior.

"She's fine, if you want, I could tell her you said hi. Anyway, can you help me out? I have some business with Sai, can you lead me to where he is now?" the boy happily nodded, and then he escorted the blonde to a shady storehouse near a neglected factory, a place where Sai and his gang usually gathered.

When he was about to enter, he dismissed Konohamaru.

After, Naruto entered the abandoned storehouse, he saw a very pale dark haired man, sitting casually on top of a pile of wooden crates, his fingers were interlocked and his chin was hidden between the fingers. Some other people are there too, whether sitting on a crate or the floor, or just standing casually there.

The dark haired man smiled at the blonde, "Well, hello Naruto, what a pleasant surprise. Do you finally agree to accept my offer to be your boyfriend?" he said in a sickening cheery voice.

The blonde snorted. "You wish, Sai, I'm straight, and you know that, can't you just give up already?" the dark haired man chuckled briefly. "I hardly could, Naruto, not with that sexy body and that tight, perky ass of yours." Naruto glared at him.

"Cut the crap, Sai, I'm here to seek your help." The older man raised his eyebrows.

"Oh? And what is it that you wanted to ask?" Sai asked, slightly curious. Naruto was hesitant, he glanced at each of the other people in the room, "in private." He said. Sai got the point, he gave a signal to his subordinates to leave the two of them alone, and they complied.

After it was just the two of them, Naruto brought his gaze up toward the dark haired man. "This might sound crazy…"

-------------------

Sasuke sighed deeply, his paperwork had made his shoulders and fingers sore. There's only thirty minutes more before lunch break, and he planned to have some lunch with Kakashi at the Red Fan café as usual. He stretched his sore arms, trying to relieve the pain. Suddenly, his cellphone rang.

The raven man picked the cellphone, and answered it. "Hello? Sasuke Uchiha speaking." He said politely. And the voice across the line spoke.

"Kabuto-san? Yes, I think I could attend the auction… … … …I'll go with my cousin, Kakashi, my brother isn't available at the moment, but I'll make sure to go as his replacement… … … …yes, yes, see you at the auction then." And he ended the conversation.

Kabuto was really eager, he had asked Sasuke whether he could go or not numerously, and it had started to piss the Uchiha off. He even asked if Sasuke already had a partner, it almost looked like he wanted to ask him out or something, isn't he dating that eerie businessman named Orochimaru? Urgh, how dreadful…

The clock showed the time, lunch break, Sasuke stood up, arranging his papers, and placing them into his folders, then into his briefcase. He took off from his office, passing many female workers who desperately tried to woo him to have lunch together with them, which he ignored as usual. Then went to his limousine.

Sasuke sat in the comfortable passenger seat, trying to relax. For the past few weeks, his non-stop work had increased his stress rapidly, and his mind was exhausted. He needed some vacation time, but with the amount of tasks he was obligated to work on, it was impossible to take any days off. Needless to say, his stress and frustration had piled up as big as a mountain, not to mention his sexual frustration. He hadn't got laid in a long time, because he was too busy with his work at the company.

_Maybe some diversion at the auction will abate my stress_, he thought, massaging his temples.

----------------------

Naruto had explained all of his problems to Sai; about the orphanage's financial condition, the amount of money he needed to pay the debts, and his crazy decision of selling himself as a slave. The dark haired man was really shocked when the blonde had finished his story, he thought Naruto had gone insane from desperation, of course he fiercely disagreed.

"Are you nuts!? Do you know what it means!? That is the craziest thing I've ever heard!!" Sai shouted in great disbelief, but the blonde was serious.

"Of course I do, if I didn't, why would I go to you in the first place?" he said, his eyes blazing in great determination, his words didn't show fear or doubt.

Sai was dumbfounded. He had never seen this Naruto before, the one he knew back then, was a little boy who was always alone, he trusted no one, he weak and fragile. But this… this Naruto, who had such a strong heart, an undefeatable will and determination, whose eyes didn't show any doubt inside… he looked like a completely different person now.

Sai sighed deeply, "It looks like whatever I could say wouldn't stop your stupid decision, huh?" he said in defeat, when the blonde is serious like that, nothing and no one could change his mind, how typical of him…

Scratching the back of his head, Sai sighed. "Alright, alright. I'll try to help you." He said in monotone.

Naruto's face instantly lit up. "Really?"

Sai nodded briefly. "Yeah, I just happened to hear some interesting info from my subordinate, and I think it could give you the perfect chance to 'sell' yourself." When the blonde was about to ask about it, he continued;

"There's gonna be an auction tonight, at a famous five star hotel. The rich nobles and elites from all over the country are invited, all of them are big-shots who're immensely wealthy, and not to mention, snobbish and love to show off, so they would most likely bring lots of cash to participate in the auction… most of them are pretty much bastards and sadists, you sure you want to go through this?" The blonde glared at him.

"Do you need to ask?" he replied harshly. Sai sighed, and then spoke again.

"And, I happen to know the person who's in charge of the auction. I could contact him to slip you in as one of the auction goods, well, a living one that is. But he'll probably ask for some profits, he's a pretty sly man. I'll go with you tonight with some of my men, just in case he tries something weird on you—" Sai was shut when the blonde suddenly tackled him to the ground, Naruto hugged the dark haired teen tightly, it almost choked Sai to death.

Naruto murmured a 'thank you' near the older man's ear, then finally pulled away completely, a wide grin plastered on his face. Sai was too shocked to move, while the blonde stood up, and helped the pale teen.

After the two had stood up firmly on the ground, Naruto started to walk off toward the storehouse entrance. He wanted to go home and tell Iruka that he won't be home tonight. "Wait." And the blonde halted his movement, then he turned his body, a questioning look plastered on his face.

The dark haired teen was staring at him, deep and serious. The blonde's body instantly stiffened by the sight of it, Sai rarely showed seriousness like this, he usually always joked around the blonde. This is such a rare occasion.

"…Are you really sure about this?" Sai began to speak, his coal eyes never parted from the blonde's. Naruto just stood there, bewildered by the older man's words. Sai's fingers were interlocked, and he hid his chin in between the bridge created by them.

"Naruto… do you know what your moronic decision will lead you to?" he asked, his voice was monotone and deep. The blonde's eyes were widened. His lips were parted, and his mouth moving, but no sound escape from it. Unknowing how he should reply, Naruto shook his head slowly. Then Sai continue.

"Being a slave isn't a small matter… once you sell yourself as a slave, it means not only losing your entire freedom, nor only your dreams, it also meant that you, have to leave your beloved family as well." The blonde's eyes grew wider at the statement.

"Wh-what do you mean…?" he stuttered nervously, he didn't think of it that far, he… he'd have to leave his family?

Sai closed his eyes briefly, and took a deep breath. "I don't know who wil get to buy you later, but there are some possibilities that your 'owner' would have you move to another town, or even different states, which is far away from your previous home now, and far from your family. And remember, as a slave, you're obligated to obey your owner's every command, you can't refuse, whether it's light or even cruel commands. Because as a slave, you have no rights, as a slave, you're nothing but a thing or pet for the kinds of people who're cruel and ignorant of other people. In short, you have to give up your life as a human." He opened his eyes, and locked his eyes with the blonde's once again.

Naruto stood there, he bent his head down slightly, so Sai could only seen his nose and mouth because the golden bangs covered his blue eyes. "…even if you know about this, do you still want continue? To sell your body to some sadistic bastards?" he asked, hoping that the blonde would say no, that Naruto would stop this insanity, he understand that his family was important to him, but there are some other way, right? Anything but this…

But he should've known better.

"…no." the blonde murmured softly, the older man couldn't comprehend his words. "What did you say?" he asked, uncertain.

The blonde shot his head up, facing straight toward the dark haired man. Sai's body jerked slightly. A pair of deep blue eye stared at his, strong and determined, yet deep inside, held strangled pain and sorrow. "I won't stop."

The older man stood up furiously, his calm expression ruined. "Naruto!! Stop this madness! I clearly understand that your family is very important to you, but there're many other ways to solve your problem without selling yourself and be treated as a slave!! And even if you do this, it wouldn't bring any joy to them, if they knew what you did for them! They wouldn't be happy with this!" he shouted breathlessly, but the blonde just stood there with the same expression on his face, soundless.

Sai was desperate now, he need to stop the blonde right now. "Naruto, list—"

"I know!!" the blonde cut his sentence, and his intense gaze brought the older man to silence. "I know, but… I don't care. I don't care if they treat me as slave, as pet, or as trash. I don't care if they take me away from my family, or even torture me to death. I just don't give a damn." He said softly, his expression slowly turn to a pained one. Sai was stunned, he has never seen so much pain in the blonde's face before, where did his usual cheerfulness go, and the usual hyperactive blonde?

"…this is a fair price, Sai. A price for all they have done for me, for all those blissful days, happiness, and warmth… All those things I didn't think I could ever get back when I still lived on the streets, homeless." He said as the memories of their togetherness all those years crossed his mind, all the happy and sad memories they experienced together, as family. Naruto clenched his fists tightly.

"I don't care about my freedom, my dreams, or my life. If I have to sacrifice mine, to save theirs, then so be it…" the blonde's voice began to crack a bit. "…because losing them means losing my life, the reason they gave me to live. As long as they can live peacefully, I'll do anything, anything I can…" and Naruto's expression suddenly hardened.

"But note this, I may sell my body, but I'll never sell my heart to them. Never." the blonde turned his body around, and started to walk toward the entrance.

Sai stood there silently, dumbfounded. Before the blonde left, he glanced at Sai over his shoulder, grinning. "I'm going home to tell Iruka that I won't be home tonight, and I've promised the children that I'll play with them today…" _while I still can_, the blonde added in his mind.

"I'll be back here before six. Oh, and… please don't tell Iruka or the children about this?" the older teen didn't answer, but the blonde ignored it, as he resumed to head outside, leaving the stunned dark haired man inside the abandoned storehouse. As Naruto walked along the road, his mind swam in deep thoughts.

_I'm sorry, Ichiro, Chi, Yuu, Kazuna, Yuki… This may be the last time I can play with all of you. _He thought as he smiled sadly. _And Iruka, I'm sorry I have to lie to you…_

-----------------  
To be continued.

School has started again, so maybe I'll be late to update the next chap, sorry about that. Please give me reviews with your opinion. And for the next chap, Naruto and Sasuke finally meet properly, look forward to it!

Ja, Mata Ne!


	4. Chapter 4 : Two Destinies Meet

**Disclaimer** : I only borrowing the characters, but do not own the original story…

I was busy at the moment, but I managed to write this chapter safely, thank God! This chap is when Naruto meet with Sasuke, but I have to say that it won't be very good one. It is Sasuke Uchiha we're talking about, folks.

This chap is un-beta'd, but shall be replaced by the corrected one soon. Please excuse the grammatical errors.

Enjoy!

**Chapter 4 : Two Destinies Met**

"I have to go now." Said the blonde, checking his watch, it was already five past ten in the afternoon, he must go to meet with Sai.

He had brought the children to the usual playground park, the children were happy because their favorite brother finally had some time for them after a while, since the blonde was too busy to accompany them before. But the time is up, he had to go to meet up with Sai at the promised place.

Two pairs of amethyst eyes gazes at him, an obvious disappoint plastered looks on their identical faces. "But Naru-nii, it's still bright! Let's play some more!" they whined in join, as they tugged the blonde's shirt, pouting. The blonde gave them an apologetic smile, and caressed their emerald locks gently.

"I'm sorry, Chii, Yuu. But I have some business to attend…" the blonde tried to reason with them, but the twins' pouts only deepened at the statement.

"We wanted to play with you more!" They whined, as their grips on Naruto's shirt tightened. Naruto sighed deeply, but he couldn't just leave them here…

"Chiirei, Yuurei! Don't be so selfish!" shouted a gentle voice, it was Kazuna's.

Ichiro walked behind her with Yuki in his arms, sleeping. The oldest sister approached them, hands on her hips, and her eyebrows furrowed in annoyance. "Naruto-niichan is busy, we can't force him to accompany us if he isn't available!" she stated matter-of-factly. The twins turned their bodies toward her, and glared.

"But Kazu-nee! We know that you wanted Naru-nii to stay longer too! What if after this, Naru-nii won't play with us anymore?" Chiirei's words struck the blonde.

Yes… after this, he may not be able to play with them anymore, nor he could even see them. If he is to be moved from this place, then this may be the last time he could spend a quality time with them… A sudden pain stung the blonde's inner chest, the thoughts of being away from his family, was painful. Could he really do this?

"…are you two understood? If nii-chan is busy, we can't disturb him, okay?" Kazuna's voice brought him back to reality, Naruto turned his gazes around to see the blonde girl was scolding at the twins. Ichiro stood beside the blonde, also watching them.

"…yes, Kazu-nee." Murmured the twins in defeat, they bowed their heads together, acted like they regretted their spoilt acts, though secretly grumbling in annoyance. The older girl caught some of their grumbles, and glared at them fiercely, "What did you two just say?" she demanded.

Frightened, the twins shook their heads furiously. "No, we didn't say anything!" they said. Though unconvinced, Kazuna decided to shrug it off. Naruto, who watched the whole thing, chuckled softly, Ichiro was giggling also.

The girl turned her body around, and began to approach the oldest blonde. The twins behind her mocked her by shoving their tongues out, toward the girl's back. By instinct, Kazuna swirled her body half-way, but the twins quickly acted as innocent as an angel.

Naruto and Ichiro both covered their mouths with their palms, trying to suppress the laughter from coming out. As Kazuna stood in front of him, she smiled sweetly. "Nii-chan, you can go now, don't worry about us; we can walk home just fine!" she said.

The blonde expression turned to a worry one, "Are you sure?" he asked, uncertain. Kazuna gave him an assuring smile, "Of course! We aren't little kids anymore, you know!" she said cheerfully.

"Yeah, nii-chan, you can just leave Yuki, Chiirei, and Yuurei to us!" Ichiro added softly, careful not to wake his little sister in his arms. Though still wasn't sure, Naruto decided to comply with them. They're right; they aren't small anymore, well, except for Yuki, who was still very young.

"…but all of you will always be my little siblings…" he murmured softly, but the children couldn't hear it. "Did you say something, nii-chan?" asked Ichiro, curious. The blonde shook his head, then smiled warmly at him, he put his hand on Ichiro's head and signaled to the others to come to him, and so they did.

After all of them gathered around him, the blonde crouched on his knees, and then glanced at each of them. Before he spoke, he took a deep breath. "Listen, Ichiro, Kazuna, Chii, Yuu…" he said in a low voice, so they knew he was serious. All of them listened quietly, slightly bewildered by the blonde's sudden seriousness.

First, he brought his gazes toward the two oldest of them, he leaned his head between their heads, near their ears. "…Ichiro and Kazuna, you two are the oldest, and I trust you two could take care of your brothers and sister when I'm not around… I know the twins are a handful, but I'm sure you can control them, especially you Kazuna." Naruto patted his palm on the said girl's head, caressing the soft pale locks.

"And Ichiro, you're a little weak at controlling the twins… but like Iruka, you're a warm-hearted boy, the twins and Yuki needed that. Especially Yuki, because you're the closest to her beside me, she is still too young, and she needs as much as attention as she can, I trust you to give that to her." Naruto used his other hand to pat Ichiro's strawberry blond head. The two of them nodded understandingly, the blonde smiled, and turned his body to the twins next.

He leaned his hands to hold each of the twins' hands gently, the twins shot him a question looks, but the blonde only replied with a soothing smile. "Chiirei, Yuurei… Ever since you two become a part of our family, you two have been inseparable, you're always together. Even though you're the little devils of our family, but we still love you, understand?" The twins nodded silently, and the blonde stood up.

He glanced at each of his siblings, grinning widely. "Well, I have to go now. Be careful on your way home!" he said before he took off, waving his hand to them and then swirled his body.

The children just stood there, watching the blonde's back as he walked away from them, and eventually disappeared from vision. "Ne, Ichiro…" said Kazuna softly, her eyes locked on the spot where the blonde had turned and disappeared.

"Yeah?" The older boy replied, his eyes also locked on the same spot.

"Why… why did Nii-chan say those things like…" she gulped slightly. "Like… he was going away to someplace far." she said, her voice trembled somehow. The older boy turned his head toward his sister, a worry look plastered on his face.

"No… it can't be. Naruto-niichan would never leave us, don't worry, Kazuna. He probably said that because we're already old enough to hold some responsibilities as the oldest children…" he said soothingly. Though the fact is, he was also uncertain.

Suddenly, Yuki stirred in Ichiro's arms, a sigh escaped from her tiny mouth. Ichiro brought his attention to his smallest sister, he rocked her to make her calm. "Sshhh, what is it, Yuki?" he said in softly. And Yuki opened her coal eyes slowly, a tear gathered at the corner of her eye.

"Ichi-niichan…" she said, giving out a small yawn. A trail of tear trickled down from her eyes, startling the older boy. "Yuki-chan? What's wrong?" asked the concerned Yuurei, all of them surrounded Ichiro and Yuki. A soft sob escaped the smallest girl's lips.

"I had a bad dream, nii-chan… very bad…" she said as she began to cry in Ichiro's arm. The said older boy and the rest tried to soothe her, but it was in vain.

"I dreamt that… that Naruto-niichan is going far away…"

--------

"This should be okay."

The blonde slowly opened his eyes, to found his own reflection in the mirror greeted him. A young blonde man, stared back at him with a pair of brilliant blue eye. His whiskers-like scars looked slightly blurry, because a thin layer of powder had covered his cheeks, unruly blond hair now formed in neat lines, while his golden bangs pushed back (like Ginji in Raitei version, only tidier), all because of the hair gel that the hair dresser had applied to his hair.

Naruto wore a pale blue silk yukata, which showed some of his tan skin of his shoulder, neck, collarbone, and chest. A thin black obi hugged his waist, the fine curve of his waist was visible perfectly, the yukata was so loose, Naruto thought it would completely fall off once the obi had released. The whole attire signaled the same thing, that he, is a slave-to-be.

After the hair dresser had gathered her tools into the bag, she dismissed herself, and left the unusually serene blonde, still staring at his reflection. The door slammed open, and Sai went in, his subordinates waited for him outside the dressing room. Once he got close to Naruto from behind, he was amazed by the blonde's features. "Wow, Naruto… you look so…" he gulped slightly, trying to find the right word.

"You look so… hot." He choked out, unable to found another word, it seemed.

Naruto smiled sarcastically, "Yeah, like a good fucking toy I'm going to be. How convenient." He said in annoyance, he was not in the mood to talk about anything, in fact. Sai frowned slightly.

"You know, Naruto. You could stop now if you want, we'll go home, and think of some other—"

"I can't. I already gone this far, I can't just turn back to the orphanage with empty hands. I only got less than two weeks left, I don't have much time." He cut off the older man's sentence, and it made Sai shut his mouth.

The door creaked open, the two in the room turned their heads toward the widely opened door. A tall man, with long dark hair, abnormal pale skin, and a pair of golden snake-like eyes, stood by the entrance, gestured in an arrogant manner. Sai quickly recognized him. The snake-like man approached them, his golden eyes scanned the blonde's features, unconsciously licked his dry lips.

"Well, well. Is he the one you were talking about, Sai? I must say that he is a very valuable asset indeed." He _purred_ in a low voice, sending chills up Naruto's spine.

"Yes, Orochi. His name is Naruto Uzumaki, Naruto, this is Orochimaru, the sponsor of this auction." The said man leaned his ghostly hand toward the blonde, and Naruto, though hesitant, accepted his offer, and shook hands with him. His hand was cold, like ice, so Naruto quickly pull away, didn't want to touch the man any longer.

"It is nice to meet you, Naruto-kun… By the way, may I ask something private? It is important before the auction start…" the blonde was silent for a while, before nodded, slightly uncertain.

The snake man chuckled darkly, his golden eyes traveled on the blonde boy's body. "Are you… by any chance, a virgin?" and the statement made Naruto's eyes, and Sai's, if possible, widened as wide as a saucer.

"What!?" the two spoke in join, surprised.

A hand briefly cupped his chin, as Orochimaru spoke again. "Well, Naruto-kun, the costumers usually liked flawless goods more, it would raise their interests, and they will surely bid in high price. We must give out some information about the goods before the bidding start, so it is very important…" he stated matter-of-factly.

Naruto's body stiffened, how would he answer such a question? Sai and Orochimaru both stared at the bewildered boy, waiting for his answer. "I… I'm a…" he stuttered, cheeks grew slightly pink. Naruto gulped as he continued;

"I'm a… a virgin." He choked out softly, but loud enough for the other two to hear.

"What!? Are you serious? You're still a virgin!? And you're nineteen!" shouted Sai loudly, and he received a fierce kick on his shank as the result.

"Quiet, will you!? Unlike you, I have no time for that! I have five kids to feed, remember!?" Naruto shouted back, face flushed in embarrassment. Sai yelped in pain, as he rubbed his swollen leg. In the other hand, Orochimaru had formed a dangerous smirk engraved on his face.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun. This valuable information shall not be wasted. And about the money we will share…" Naruto brought his face toward the snake man, his expression hardened.

"As long as I got fifty hundred dollars, I don't care about the rest, you can have it." He said blankly, and Orochimaru's smirk only gotten wider. But Sai have another idea.

"No, you can have thirty percent of the total money, the remaining seventy belongs to Naruto." He said, the blonde automatically brought his gazes up to the dark boy, when he was about to speak, Sai's glare shut him up.

Then, he turned to face Orochimaru again. "Deal?" he demanded.

His subordinates entered the room, gestured casually near the entrance, each of them shooting daggers toward the snake man's back. Orochimaru was fully aware that this wasn't a safe transaction anymore; it's a threat. Sighing, he decided it would be best to comply with the younger man. "Then thirty percent it is." He said as he turned his body around, and began to walk toward the door to leave, Sai's subordinate moved to give him a way.

"Why did you do that?" Naruto protested.

Sai glanced at him, "I did that so your sacrifice won't be in vain. Think of it, you can use the money to school your siblings, or buy a house or anything for them."

The blonde suddenly came to realized that he was being stupid a moment ago. "Oh…" He said, as he bent his head in embarrassment.

Sai sighed. "Well, I'd be best to leave you now. Remember, the auction start at eight, 'till then, you can do what you want, maybe go grab something to eat, you're as skinny as a stick, you know? I'll leave some men to guard you." And he walked away to leave the room.

The blonde who was left alone in the room, grew slightly bored. "I think I go grab something to eat…" he murmured as he stood up.

------------

The party was boring, so was the dinner.

Sasuke Uchiha thought, for the millionth times already. The dinner had finished, followed by a high-level party, the elite nobles and important peoples were enjoying themselves in the luxurious ballroom, chattering some topics about their business, money, and authorities. While the female population talked about gems, diamonds, jewelries, dresses, and other expensive things they bought recently. Add the gossip session, and it would also add the mystery of why women liked to spend their times for such a lavish activity.

A mystery for the Uchiha. Though he wasn't all that care.

He drank up his wine, while he pretended to listen to the young girl's chatters beside him. "…and father just bought a really nice summer house and a private beach. My friends and I had planned to go there this summer, would you like to join us, Sasuke-kun?" the pink haired girl asked, her emerald eyes stared up to the raven, glimmers of hope lingered inside.

The raven sighed deeply, he doesn't have time for this. "I'm sorry, Miss Haruno. But with my brother's absent, my schedule is tight even in this summer. I'm afraid I have to refuse your offer." He declined politely. But the young woman won't give up that easily.

"Ooh, you're such a hard worker, Sasuke-kun! But I think you must let loose once in a while, why don't you join us for a short vacation?" she clapped her hands together, and blinked pleadingly.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, if she wasn't one of the share holder's daughter, he would've reject her long ago. But for the sake of his company, he had to restrain her persistent advances on him. How troublesome.

Thankfully, his beloved cousin came to his rescue. Kakashi waved his hand toward the raven from a far, at a certain less-crowded spot, signaled him to approach him. Sasuke mentally screamed in glee, and his lips formed a smirk. "Please excuse me, Miss Haruno. My cousin had called me for some emergency business." He lied, as he bowed his head apologetically, and began to walk away.

Sakura pouted in displease, when she was about to talk again, the said raven man glanced at her over his shoulder.

"And the answer is still 'no'."

------------

When Sasuke approached Kakashi, he sighed deeply in relief. The said silver haired man chuckled in amusement. "I see that you're as busy as always, Sasuke. Dating Haruno-san's daughter, how brave." He joked, and the raven shot him a glare to shut him up.

"Shut up Kakashi, you knew how much I dislike that girl. Disturbing me in every opportunity she had, why can't she get a life?" he said as he pressed his back against the nearby wall, crossing his arms.

But unfortunately, the older man doesn't plan to stop his tease. "Well, she has a life, Sasuke. I think chasing you is her motives of living, oh, scratch that. All of your fans do." Sasuke's glare deepened, but Kakashi's laughed louder.

"Forget about that, Kakashi. How's your progress?" he asked, and the older man stopped laughing. He turned his gazes, and Sasuke followed where it went to.

A tall man, with beautiful long red hair hung loosely to his back, he wore a formal white suit, hugging his perfectly slim figure gracefully. He was surrounded by a group of people, the raven recognized some of them as the president of several big companies, famous people in the show business, international actors and actress, also models. Sasuke couldn't see his face, because the long hair concealed it, but he was sure the man was handsome, the dreamy faces of the female population who were surrounding him proved it.

"His name is Kyuubi no Kitsune." Kakashi started. "Young, but successful. He owned a giant software company passed down from his family, a genius when it came to business, he started other companies as well from scratch, and all became as big and famous as now. For example, the Rosemary Hospital was built by him from a small clinic, and became a giant hospital within five years now, and people from all over the world came to seek the excellent medical facility. And many others." He explained briefly, Sasuke nodded slightly, his eyes still locked on the red head.

"I talked to him about things, and he said he was greatly interested in becoming our partner also. But apparently he was busy with his new business, he planned to start a production house in the show business, like modeling agency, and such. Such a creative guy. He was really polite and a _gentleman_, the only thing missing from you." He added to tease the younger man, who, as he predicted, glared at him as his reply.

"I don't need your comments, thank you. I'm fine with the way I am, excuse me for not being able to act as friendly as he was." He said in a deep annoyance, Kakashi chuckled cheerfully. Oh, the fun of teasing his younger cousin! As the only child of his family, Kakashi had taken a hobby of teasing Sasuke, like Itachi, he was addicted to it. All much to Sasuke's displeasure.

Suddenly, the red head took a notice of someone had been eying him from a far, he brought his gazes, and found two man had been staring at him, one of them was the man he talked with a while ago. The raven wondered when the red head excused himself from the crowds, and began to walk toward the two, with a friendly smile plastered on his face.

"Hello, Kakashi-san. Is this gentleman the one you were talking about?" he asked politely, he gestured his body to face the raven, who kept his arrogant expression on.

Kakashi's only visible eye curved upward. "Yes, Kyuubi-san, this is my younger cousin, Sasuke Uchiha, he is one of the presidents of our company."

The red head smiled at the raven, leaning his hand. "It is nice to meet you, Uchiha-san. I have heard many things about you, and your company." Although a bit uneasy somehow, Sasuke shook hand with the red head.

"I am very interested to work with you, but I need to settle some business first. After that, I might consider your offer, Kakashi-san." He said as he turned his body to face the silver haired man.

"Of course, Kyuubi-san. Take your time to consider, I hope you will accept my offer, though." The red head laughed wholeheartedly, but the voice of the women who surrounded him before, interrupted them.

"Oh, I'm very sorry. But I think I must go now, I am looking forward for our next meeting." He said as he took off, walking toward the impatience fangirls. Kakashi moved closer to Sasuke's side, whispering.

"See? He resemble you, the only difference was your personality." He said, and it annoyed the raven once again. "Like I would give a damn." He said simply, as he began to walk away.

"Where are you going?" asked his curious cousin.

Sasuke glanced at him over his shoulder. "Restroom, I think I drank too much wine."

----------

Naruto closed the tap.

He brought up his gazes toward the long mirror that hung on the wall, stretched along the marble sink counter. He adjusted his slightly wrinkled yukata, as he sighed deeply.

He had no idea that this hotel was so freaking huge, so he got lost in his search for food. He also got separated from Sai's subordinates in the way, and somehow, ended up in the male's restroom.

Just his luck.

He glanced up to the clock on the wall, 07:27 P.M., about thirty minutes again, his whole life will change drastically, tonight, is when his life took a sharp turn. Once again, Naruto glanced at his reflection in the mirror.

"Soon… I'll be someone's pet, huh…" he murmured to himself, and his reflection frowned slightly, and the answer was a 'yes', Naruto thought to himself.

He sighed as he bent down his head, hands clenching the side of the sink counter, his body began to tremble slightly. He was afraid, to be honest. Really afraid. He doesn't know who he would belong to later, what kind of treatment he would receive from his new 'master', the fact that he doesn't know anything about how the future will led, scare him.

"…Iruka…" he murmured softly, as the man he thought as a father to him, crossed his mind. "I'm so sorry…" he said softly.

"But if I get the money today, and the debt collectors won't disturb your life again…" he murmured, he knew no one was there to hear him out. The restroom was empty after all. But the chances of someone might go in anytime didn't seem to bother him.

"I had to be… to be a slave, I had to… Damnit! Naruto, brace yourself!" he slammed his fists to the counter desperately, why did he have to feel doubts now? He knew he couldn't turn back…

Creak.

A sound of the door's handle hit the wall, brought him back to awareness. He turned his body around to see another person had entered the restroom. He stood there, by the entrance with wide eyes, and a shocked look on his face, wordless.

The blonde also shocked when he recognized that person. Raven hair, deep dark onyx eyes, milky pale skin, all of his features, were very familiar to Naruto. How can anyone forget? The famous Sasuke Uchiha, stood there in a shocked manner. It seemed that he had heard all of Naruto's rambles to himself.

And Naruto certainly didn't reckon his employer would also participate in the auction.

Fuck.

------------

To be continued.

I know I promised to make them meet up in this chap, but I seriously don't have time now. And I'm so sorry to DeliciouslyGood, I promised her I would write some SasuNaru actions in this chap, but it had to be delayed until the next chap. Yes, possible smut for the next, maybe limes. And I promise I would update faster, despite all things.

Review, please? With some opinions will do, to refresh my mind, sigh. Yes, I am stressed. Much love to the reviewers, thank you.

Ja, Mata Ne.


	5. Chapter 5 : Caged Bird

**Disclaimer :** If I claim Naruto as mine, all his fans might kill me on the spot. –shudders-

**A/N** : I apologize of my lateness, again, I was stuck with the story plot, so it took longer than I had expected to finish this chap. I wrote some slight SasuNaru actions in this chap. I dedicated the SasuNaru actions in this chap for my friend, **DeliciouslyGood**, because she had requested it to me. I hope you liked it, dear!

All the reviews and positive feedbacks I got from you had made me really happy, it is a pity that I couldn't reply the anonymous reviews. Therefore, I shall reply them here:  
**Jtrsj :** I already updated the chapter, I hope you enjoy it!  
**Ddd :** I had updated now, thank you for your review.  
**Jessi :** So many reviews at the same time, I'm happy that you liked it! And yes, I had written some SasuNaru actions here.  
**M :** I hope this chapter satisfy your curiosity, thank you.  
**Yosuiko : **Thank you for your kind words, I'm glad that you liked this story. Arigatou gozaimasu! Anata wa nihon kara desuka?  
**Hime :** I'm flattered, thank you very much!  
**Narue :** I had updated, I hope you liked this chapter.  
**Sari-chan :** Your review had made my day. Thank you very much, dear!  
**Obsessed-fangirl :** I couldn't take your suggestion because it was already in the middle of the chapter, I'm sorry. But I'm happy with your suggestion.  
There are more anonymous reviewers whose reviews are yet to be replied. But I really appreciate their feedbacks, and I will reply them later.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

------------

_**Chapter 5 : Caged Bird  
**_

"What are you doing here?" came a demanding question.

Naruto took a step back, and his waist hit the hard marble sink. With wide eyes he glanced over his shoulder in panic, and then it shifted to the man a few steps in front of him, who was waiting impatiently for his answer. He didn't expect this would happen, to actually cross someone who knew him, most dreadfully, his own _**employer**_.

"You…" Sasuke brought two digits onto his temples. "Aren't you an employee of the Red Fan café? I remember you…"

The blonde tensed as he proceeded to stare at the raven with wide eyes. His mind had begun to panic now, he glanced over his surroundings, eyes scanning for any possible way to flee. But the main and only door to escape was behind the raven, and so he was trapped. As none answered him, Sasuke's eyebrows came together in an irritated manner.

"Those statements you said before, is it true then?" he asked again, but once again, no answer came to him.

Naruto was utterly confused, his mind was restless and panicked, that he couldn't comprehend his employer's demanding questions. _Damn it! What should I do? Why are things just getting more complicated? I've yet to finish the first one, and now this occurs instead, fuck!_ He mused and cursed mentally. He'd have to find a way to get out from this unwanted trouble immediately; he had another thing to deal with after all.

"It's none of your business." Came a bland reply from the blonde, a hint of uncertainty hidden in his voice.

Sasuke's eyebrows twitched at the statement. "None of my business?" he repeated, a sudden darkness appeared on his face, a cynic frown marred his calm features. Naruto flinched.

"I suppose it is obvious." With that, he swirled on his heels.

Holy hell, Naruto let out a sigh of relief, relaxing his body as he thought the raven had intended to leave at last. But then, he was wrong for one thing; the Uchiha had yet to finish his talk.

"After all… that's what _**lowlifes**_ like you do. Selling your body for money," he snorted in disgust. "pathetic." Then he proceeded to leave.

Naruto's sapphire eyes snapped wide at the ruthless statement. A sudden sharp pain stung his chest, deep and merciless.

It only took him seconds to snap.

Soon, the Uchiha found himself being pinned down by the blonde, mind hazy by the impact of the hard crash on his head. He was on his back, with the blonde over him, straddling his hips. As he had finally recovered from his hazy-state of mind, he creaked open his eyes slowly, to find a pair of furious deep blue eyes, staring down to him. Anger flooding its deep depths.

Clenching his teeth, Naruto fisted the raven's collar roughly, and pulled him near his face. "What do you know!?" he growled, as blue eyes caged the onyx ones.

Sasuke was dumbfounded, too shocked to reply. The blonde's hands and body shook in an intense anger he felt had overcome his senses, clouding his judgment. "People like _**you**_ wouldn't know how people like _**us**_ felt!" he snarled viciously.

"How those _**lowlifes**_ you called, had to live on the streets day in, day out, sleeping without a layer of blanket to cover their ice cold bodies!! How they had to steal for food, or scavenge the trash only to search for a single bite to fill their starvation!! People like you, who live inside safe and luxurious houses, eating warm and fresh food everyday, what do you know!?" Flares of fire flickered inside his eyes, flashing in the light of the lamp.

The Uchiha, however, instead of reacting with any arguments he could think of, remained silent. His eyes were wide, and locked on the blonde's angered expression. Naruto was panting, he was tired from all the breathless shouts he had let out. As soon as he had regained some of his energy, he brought his gazes to glare at the raven once again.

"We have no money, we have no property, we have nothing, but we're happy. Is trying to keep that happiness a wrong thing to do? Is it?" His eyes suddenly downcast, and then he bent his head, his grip loosened.

Sasuke could yank himself off the blonde if he wanted to, since Naruto's grip was no longer detaining him. And he could just push him off of him, and then stand and leave the blonde alone. But he did nothing. He did nothing but stare. Staring at the blonde, who was still straddling his hips, and sitting over his stomach.

He had these…

These strange urges to…

To hold the younger man in front of him.

Naruto finally let go of his grasp from the Uchiha's collar, and let his arms flung on his sides, as his head still bent down, bangs concealed his face. A warm hand suddenly touched his scarred cheek, drawing his head up, and soon, he found a pair of onyx eyes was staring at him. Intensely.

_Wh-what?_ Naruto mused in confusion, as a thumb caressed the smooth skin.

_Why the hell did I do this?_ Sasuke questioned himself mentally. He himself didn't understand why he had done something as irrational and ridiculous such as _**this**_. He was only… regretting. Yes, that was it. Nothing else. The Uchiha mentally reminded himself, he was being soft only because he was regretting of the foul words he had said.

But than again, an Uchiha mustn't have any regrets.

Naruto stared at The Uchiha, dumbfounded. Minutes before, he had mocked him, calling him a lowlife. And minutes later, he was being gentle and… kind? It all confused him greatly. "Wh-what are you…" he choked out, and tried to pull away. But a hand had cupped his chin, detaining his attempts.

The Uchiha said nothing, as he forced the blonde down, closer to him. Their faces only inches away, noses almost touching. Intense onyx eyes locked on the sapphire blue ones. Sasuke didn't care anything else now, as needs was the only ones mattered now.

The need to touch the blonde.

Such an insane one, he must add.

But he was something he couldn't resist.

Another hand sneaked to the blonde's behind, touching the clothed hips. Naruto jerked at the sudden contact, he quickly tried to push himself off. Unfortunately, Sasuke was too fast for him, he pressed the blonde's body to him, and the blonde was forcefully being pulled down.

Naruto's reflexes were useful in the end, he spread his arms on each sides, pressing the cold floor, and it successfully held his weight from falling. The blonde had finally gathered his senses, with an angry growl, he brought his fist to pound the raven's cheek.

Sasuke let out a loud yelp of pain, as his head tilted to side, his left cheek burning red. Naruto then stood up, a furious expression clearly displayed on his face, darkening the usual bright one. He glared down at the wincing Uchiha, who was still on his back, apathetically.

"Just because I am a _lowlife_," He snarled. "doesn't mean I'm a _**whore**_ too."

Sasuke looked up to him, and he realized that his actions had offended the blonde immensely.

"Fucking asshole." Naruto adjusted his wrinkled yukata. _Although I'm going to be one of those assholes' pet, how ironic._ He added mentally.

"Naruto, where are you!?" came a voice, shouting in panic.  
Followed by the sounds of foot steps coming from outside.

It was Sai's, Naruto noticed. After he had adjusted his yukata, he glanced at the raven, who was already on his feet. As much as he hated the raven now, he **is** his employer, so he must apologize to the raven, or he'll lose his job.

"I won't apologize." He hissed, blue eyes suddenly grew wide as he realized what he had said. That couldn't be identified as anything resembling an apology.

Sasuke seemed surprised by the blonde's rebellious manner too, he was surprised by the fact that Naruto didn't look like he regretted his actions before, which could make him lose his job. Without anything else escaping his mouth, Naruto swirled on his heels, heading toward the door, and left.

That left the Uchiha alone, musing silently to himself.

For some odd reason, he couldn't drive away those rebellious blue eyes from his mind. How his angered and hurt expression looked very… intriguing. The blonde wasn't a bad-looking one, he was actually very handsome. Those deep ocean depths, that brilliant bundle of sunshine…

He wanted him.

These feelings he felt for the blonde…

Were lust.

----------------

(Time skipped; I want to get to the most important scene already.)

Naruto grabbed his shaking upper arm, trying to calm his nerves.

"Naruto, you okay?" asked Sai worriedly on his side.

"I'm fine." Came a bland reply, his eyes looking away.

Soon, it would be his turn to step on the broad stage, in front of the richest and most famous people in the country. The auction had started around an hour ago, and they had him as the last goods to announce later. Now, they were busy bidding a rare antique from the Tang Dynasty. Naruto couldn't understand what was so interesting in such a humongous ceramic vase, how exactly do they bring it home, anyway?

"Naruto-kun." A hissed voice called him.

Orochimaru approached the blonde and Sai, a sly smirk graced his pallid complexion. Though hesitant, Naruto turned his body around to face the older man, Sai remained cautious by his side. Orochimaru chuckled deeply, as a hand cupped his chin.

"What do you want, Orochi?" Sai questioned, a hint of snarl in his voice.

The said man ignored the tone, as he continued. "Before you go on the stage, I have some… rules to tell you, something you must do on the stage, to raise the customer's interests more…" he hissed in a disturbing low voice.

Naruto felt his golden snake eyes scan his body, going up and down with strange glints lingering inside. Slight shivers ran up his spine as the man resumed devouring his features, such an uncomfortable feeling. He was wearing a very loose yukata, only a thin layer of cloth covered his body, somehow, he knew the next thing coming wouldn't be so nice.

"Alright, what?" the blonde said, challenging pair of eye stared at the older man.

It only intrigued him more. "Well, Naruto-kun. As much as I _**hate**_ to say this to you…" _I doubt that_, Naruto mused. "…When you are on the stage, before the bidding starts, I think it would be best if you… stripped your clothes off."

Two pairs of widened eyes were enough for Orochimaru to know the two teens were utterly shocked. A loud "WHAT!?" came in unison from their gaping mouths.

Sai was the most furious one, in a blink of an eye, he had his hands fisting the older man's collar. His usually calm expression, or the sickening smile he always put on, was no longer gracing his face.

"What the fuck are you trying to say!? Strip? Do you think Naruto is some sort of a cheap whore!?" He snapped, coal eyes flickered in anger.

Orochimaru, however, kept the smirk on. "Of course not. I'm only giving a suggestion, the decision is Naruto-kun's to make."

"He would never do such a low thing!! Right, Naruto!?" Sai looked over his shoulder, and saw the blonde behind him, thinking of it for a moment.

"…will that make them want me more?" he asked then, much to Sai's surprise.

"Naruto? What are you saying!?" Sai said in confusion, he let go of his grips, and approached the blonde hurriedly. Naruto ignored his friend's protests, as he had been doing today, "Well?" he demanded at the snake man.

Orochimaru stared at him bemusedly, "Of course, that way, the customers can see your precious **assets** perfectly, as much as your flaws too, if you have any scratches on your body. I believe once the customers saw all of your being, they would consider it more. And please, you have to watch your behavior on the stage; obedience is also one of the most important factors a _**slave**_ must have. I suggest that you remain speechless and calm." A twitch appeared on Sai's fine eyebrows, as the word 'slave' had been said. But Naruto, as the man in conversation, ignored the term.

"Then I'll do it." Naruto said, almost certainly. Almost.

A pair of coal eyes locked on him, dumfounded, as if he had gone insane. But Naruto was not, he was just desperate with the task to get the money he needed for his family. Sai was about to shout protests at him again, but was interrupted by;

_"And now, for the last but not least, we will now offer a fine vassal…"_ the M.C. announced, it was a signal for Naruto to hurry come on stage.

"Oh, I think it is your turn now, Naruto-kun. I will also accompany you, let us go." Orochimaru said as he approached the blonde's side. Naruto nodded meekly, and followed the older man as he began to enter the stage.

Naruto glanced over his shoulder, Sai was still there, staring at him with pain evidently lingering in his coal eyes.

----------------

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly as he saw the blonde boy before, now standing on the stage beside a snake-like man he recognized as Orochimaru.

"Sasuke? What's wrong?" asked his curious cousin, when the raven said nothing, he brought his gazes to where Sasuke's had gone to. At the blonde boy on the stage.

Kakshi then raised a fine brow. "Slave, huh? That Orochimaru guy sure has some guts, although slavery is common now, it's still an illegal activity. If the authorities find out, he could be wiped out." He commented briefly. _Though, you can bribe them these days…_ he added mentally.

Sasuke said nothing, as his eyes still locked on the blonde, never averting his gazes from him. Kakashi who noticed this, found this situation and his dear cousin's behavior quite a rare one, Sasuke had never show any interest in someone who won't bring any profit to him.

"You interested in him?" he asked curiously, though he already knew the answer.

Sasuke's attention suddenly switched at the question, he turned his face toward his silver-haired cousin, a stoic expression on his face. "Who are you to kidding? I have no interest in such a dirty rascal." He stated in monotone.

Kakashi raised both of his eyebrows, "Oh, really?"

"Yes, stop asking meaningless questions, Kakashi." The raven snapped, as he looked away again, anywhere except the blonde.

Kakashi smiled slyly. "Oh, but unfortunately, Sasuke…" he trailed off, he knew the raven heard him.

"I don't buy it."

--------------

Orochimaru had stepped into the podium, and began his speech. Naruto stood by the podium, his blue eyes were unreadable.

_"Ladies and Gentlemen, I will now present our finest goods tonight."_ He announced briefly. _"He is still young, as you can see, he turned nineteen two months ago, and is a virgin. His body is perfectly healthy, strong, and has immense stamina. He is a perfect one to be a servant or a valet, my fair audience, and also a suitable one to be… a mate, if you catch my meaning."_ A sly smirk had made its way across his pallid face.

Naruto flinched as he felt pairs of eyes were staring at him, it made him felt uncomfortable, especially with those eyes that held foul desires toward him. Brief chatters filled the ballroom, as the audiences considered of whether to participate with the bidding or not. They looked quite used to this, so what he had heard were all true after all. That riches and elites enjoy having a slave to boss around. Those cruel bastards.

Normally, Naruto would burst out mad if anyone dared to glance at him in such a manner. But now, he had to remain silent and calm, acting like an 'obedient' slave as Orochimaru had instructed him to. His blue eyes stayed void and emotionless, as did his mind, which was not in place right now.

_Ichiro… Kazuna… Chi… Yuu… Yuki… Iruka… please, give me the strength to deal with this!_ He mused repeatedly, to avert his mind from thinking the negative things that might happen after this. With his new _**master**_.

Orochimaru smiled a wicked smile, as he moved off of the podium, and stood close to Naruto. "Naruto-kun, it's time. Strip your clothes, do it while you walk to the front stage." He whispered near his ears, almost like a hiss.

Naruto nodded meekly, and he began to walk slowly, toward the front stage, where all the audiences could see his whole being. He started from the thin black obi that hugged his waist, he unbuckled it, while walking. All eyes locked on him, and awkward silence lingered. Naruto shut his eyes as he threw the obi to the floor, in a desperate attempt to wake himself from this nightmare. But of course, he was fully aware that this wasn't a dream; it was the reality.

Finally, the pale blue yukata fell near his feet, and he was covered with nothing but a thin layer of skin. Nothing else remained. Bare as the day God made him. He shivered slightly as the cold wind of aircon brushed his bare skin, but heated inside as he felt the intense eyes had been staring at him again. Soon, soft chatters filled the air again, praising the blonde's flawless features.

Naruto had successfully gained their interest.

But why didn't he feel glad?

----------

A pair of onyx eyes stared at the blonde in awe. He had never seen such a beautiful boy before, his features looked slightly feminine with that curvy and slim waist, but also boyish with the firm muscles of his abs, chest, legs, and arms. Flawless golden skin perfectly coated his entire flesh beneath, golden strands neatly dressed, and two sapphire eyes contrasting the golden color engulfed him. Though his cheeks were scarred; it only raised his unique beauty. He was a perfect mix of both feminine and masculine.

Sasuke found himself scanning the blonde's skin, and his gazes going lower, and lower, to the blonde's private pride. He gulped hard unconsciously.

"Dang," Kakashi beside him murmured. "He's a hot one." 

Sasuke couldn't agree more.

----------

Since his eyes caught the blonde for the first time, he couldn't avert his eyes off of him.

How could God create such a beautiful man like him? The question being repeated in his mind, as he once again locked his gazes on the teen. His face, his hair, his eyes, his lips, his body—everything in him was perfect. When the blonde began to strip his clothes, he even found himself unable to…

Unable to _**breathe**_.

"You okay?" asked his friend beside him.

Without looking at his friend, the man in question spoke. "Shukaku… I-I…" he stuttered. He has never stuttered before. Never. He had lost his composure, his calm, and this had never happened before. He was not being himself. All because of the blonde, whose name he even had yet to know.

The man named Shukaku raised his eyebrows, the red head had never acted like this before, it was truly intriguing and rare to see him act restless like this. He would ask the reason if he wanted to, but alas, the time was not on his side this time. The night meeting with the business partner was near, if they didn't depart now, they would be late.

But after he saw the red head's behavior, maybe it wouldn't be so bad to wait a bit more.

------------

Naruto was bare for the entire world to see.

He didn't care anymore, even if his pride had shattered down at this very moment. He had shut down his mind from thinking unnecessary things. Just submit himself to his fate.

With a smirk Orochimaru braced himself. "Let the bidding begin." he announced.

The bidding started at one hundred thousand dollars, it seemed Orochimaru planned on making as much as money he could, such a sly man. Naruto just stood silently, as he was told, while the bidders had offered their bids, and the price kept rising higher, and higher. His ears had deafened, and he thought nothing more.

_Iruka…  
_  
------------

"Let's go, we have no time left." the brunette said in monotone.

The red head was just about to talk, but Shukaku had interrupted him. "We don't have time, we're already late now. I won't tolerate any of this meaningless action you're about to make, there are much more important issues to deal with." He stated matter-of-factly.

The red head was dumbfounded, unable to throw any argument toward his partner, he was right after all. With one last glance at the blonde, he sighed.

"I guess you're right." He said in defeat. "Let us go."

Shukaku nodded, and they walked toward the ballroom's entrance. He stepped out latter than the red head, before he took off, he glanced at the blond slave. A flicker of interest lingered inside.

No wonder Kyuubi got so worked up.

-------------

"Fifty!" Shouted an old fat guy.

"Fifty million dollars! Anyone dare to bid higher?" Orochimaru asked, but no one answered him, many considered it a moment. "Anyone else? No? Then Fifty million dollars, one." He slammed the hammer to the wooded pad.

Naruto flinched in disgust as the said fat man smirked at him, his lust-filled eyes scanned all over his body. Both of his hand's rings-attached fingers pressed the swollen belly, as he licked his suddenly dry lips. He had to be _**this**_ man's property? How his world will turn into one living hell for sure! Not only was he **fat**, he also **short**, and a _**pervert**_.

Perfect. Naruto mused sarcastically.

"Two…" Orochimaru slammed his hammer down again. The last slam hit the wooden pad, will be the sign that Naruto had been sold. To that disgusting man.

Naruto shut his eyes in anticipation.

"Th—"

"One hundred million dollars!!" shouted a deep voice.

Naruto snapped open his eyes, and quickly brought his gazes to the source of that deep voice was. His eyes widened as he saw the bidder.

Sasuke had approached the front stage, and now was facing the blonde, who was standing on the high stage, staring at him in confusion. With a black briefcase in his hand, Sasuke began to walk to the stage's side, toward the low stairs, eyes never averting from the blonde's. The crowds was in uproar, surprised by the Uchiha's sudden actions.

Naruto still eying the raven, as the said man approached the podium, where Orochimaru was. Sasuke shoved his briefcase to the snake man's nose, with a pair of ice cold eyes glaring at him.

"I pay in cash." He said in monotone. "Now, can _**my**_ slave put on his clothes? I don't like anyone to see his whole being except for myself." He snarled viciously.

Orochimaru accepted the briefcase with open hands, a satisfied smirk plastered on his face. "Fine, then. But shall I offer something to you? Think of this as a service."

Sasuke raised a fine eyebrow, "What?"

"We had prepared a room, you can wait there, and I'll send the goods later, so both of you can have some… private time." He smirked slyly.

After the raven had thought of it for a moment, then a smirk graced his face. "I don't see why not." He said, then swirled on his heels, heading toward the bewildered blonde, who was still bare, and shivering from the cold air.

He bent down on his way occasionally, to pick up the black obi and the yukata the blonde had tossed before. Naruto stared at him in both confusion and curiosity as Sasuke wrapped the yukata around his bare body, to hide the blonde's skin from the others to see, the blonde was _**his**_ now, and he didn't plan to share.

Uchiha's don't share, and he planned to always obey that one.

As he saw Naruto's bewildered expression, he leaned closer to the blonde, lips near his ears. "You're mine now, dobe." He whispered huskily.

With that statement Naruto had accomplished his task, his family will be saved, but he became a slave as the compensation.

One down, a thousand rose.

He was now… a caged bird.

----------------

Meanwhile

"So, you'll be back next week? Great!" Kakashi exclaimed cheerfully, a cellphone pressed against his left ear. The man across the line spoke.

"Oh, Sasuke? He's fine, don't worry. Busy as always but he's okay. Oh, by the way…" A smile had formed on the silver haired man's lips. "I've got some news you might want to hear."

----------------

To be continued.

**A/N :** Some of you might say/think, 'Where the hell's the smut!? The damn authoress lied!! Damn woman!!' or 'Ack, what's this piece of junk doing here!?' or 'OMG, she lied! I won't read her story again, ever.' If you are, PLEASE listen to me first. I'm detaining the smut because… I wanted to write a lemon in the next chap! I wanted to write Naruto's first time nice and slow, because if I write it now (which I'm not in the mood to), it would be a BAD quality smut, and I will have to cut my hand because I'm such a bad writer. I want to write a graphic lemon, and in order to write it, needs time and full concentration (for me anyway, 'coz I'm retard), and so, please understand.

Oh, and because I want to write about the other pairings as well, and dedicate each of them a story (in this story) all thanks to the lovely **'wishmaker101'**, whose reviews had made the ideas popped out of nowhere. You can add your favorite side pairings in your review, if you want me to. Of course it'll all still relate to the main story, Yaoi, het, or Yuri (ack, not really a fan of this one) I'll write it. REVIEW PLEASE!

Ja, Mata Ne!!


	6. Chapter 6 : Broken Wing

**Disclaimer :** My dearest Naruto, I have kidnapped Sasuke in my place. If you want him to return to you safely, please announce yourself as my property. "…" –hung up the call, dial tone- Dang, it failed.

**A/N :** …hum… you see, I have some problems with the lemon. One of the reviewers asked me if it's gonna be rape, 'coz it doesn't make sense if he's enjoying… But I had come up with this conclusion; Naruto may be unwilling (obviously), but Sasuke doesn't have any intent to just 'break' his new slave, so he'll make it as pleasurable for both of them as possible. I heard some victims of rape cases actually got orgasm… But to do it with someone who's unwilling can be counted as rape also… I'm confused.

You don't have any idea of how happy I am to receive so many positive feedbacks from you! XD And you have no idea how much I love you for that. Thanks so much! I shall reply the anonymous reviews:

**Analei :** Thank you! But… what part do you find erotic in this fic?

**Ann :** I'm glad you thought of it like that!

**Ashleigh :** No, no. The 'red head' I mentioned in the previous chap wasn't Gaara, it was Kyuubi. If you read chap. 4, you can find Kyuubi being mentioned there.

**Pat :** I'm afraid I don't know who exactly you've mentioned. Since I've become a writer, I don't read much these days, so I hardly catch up with the latest stories. Maybe it was just a coincidence? And I'm flattered by your words, thank you!

**Lonelylulaby :** I'm very happy you understand, thanks!

**Ddd :** Um… I'm confused on how I should reply this review… please write a specific one next time!

**FCA :** I'm happy that you enjoyed it! Please read this chap to the fullest!

**RandomReader :** Thank you, I've updated now!

This chapter dedicated to : My friend, **'DeliciouslyGood'**, who had requested the smuts. **'Yuuko Uchiha'**, whose PM had made me very happy with her detailed opinion.

I wrote this chapter longer, as a X-mas gift! Enjoy!!

---------------

**Chapter 6 : Broken Wing**

The room was in uproar, chatters filled the heavy air.

"_You're mine now, dobe." _

The sentence was being repeated in Naruto's mind, over, and over again. Hints of bewilderment still lingered inside those ocean depths, as he gazed at the Uchiha in front of him. With wide eyes that showed utter disbelief, he looked away, scanning the whole room in an emotion that seemed like a mix of befuddlement, disbelief, embarrassment, panic, and somewhat _anxiety_.

He saw those faces, the faces of the riches and nobles that were shone by the auras of luxury were all turned to him, a _mere_ child, with their observing pairs of eyes filled with curiosity, and something else resembled _pity _and _mockery_. Sudden waves of nausea washed his insides, as Naruto's body tensed, heart thumping like-crazy, as if he was just awaked from a terrifying nightmare.

'_This is the reality.'_ He heard a voice warned him.

Of course, this was the reality. The children, Iruka, the debts, the orphanage, the auction, and his new _master_, _**all**_ of it, were the reality. And the undeniable fact that he was currently standing on the stage of the ballroom of a five-star hotel, _auctioned_ himself as a slave for money, stripped his clothes off and showed his whole being for the people in the whole room to see… it all crashed upon him, harsh and _abrupt_.

Merciless.

"Dobe." He heard an icy voice.

And the nausea suddenly calmed by the voice, and Naruto twisted his head back to the Uchiha. He saw the raven haired man, who had pronounced words of claim to him, Sasuke Uchiha, the owner of the café he worked as a part-timer, his employer. And the man, whom he had planted his fist onto in the last hour, was now his new _**master**_. The man who owns him, both of his body and his freedom.

In what seemed like a decade, while in reality only seconds had passed, Sasuke's voice slapped him back to awareness. That voice that resembled ice spikes; deep, dark, and stabbing cold.

A ghost-like hand slowly leaned up, to caress the blonde's whiskered cheek. Naruto flinched away slightly at the sudden contact, Sasuke frowned, but ignored it then.

"Put on your clothes, and meet me later." He said bluntly, face stern.

Naruto wondered to himself as the Uchiha swirled his heels, climbed down the stage casually, then walked away with his hands buried into his pockets. All the blonde did was staring at the Uchiha's broad back as he headed toward the entrance to leave, with bewildered mind that still spinning wildly.

"Naruto-kun."

Another voice caught his attention, Naruto swirled around, and found Orochimaru was walking toward him, hands outstretched in a greeting manner. Upon seeing the snake-like man approached him, Naruto braced himself, and glared fiercely at him, hands clutching the yukata wrapped around his body tightly.

Orochimaru only sneered at the unfriendly gesture. "Uchiha-san left a message, he said he wants to meet you in the hotel room… in _private_. I will personally guide you after you're ready." He explained briefly.

Naruto's eyes widened at the explanation. But soon, the shock faltered, he knew _**that**_ one would come sooner or later, and he had prepared himself for it. It was an odd sensation though; to know that he will soon lost every bit of his remaining freedom, innocence, and time…

A month ago, he had never thought things would be in this way, but he had told himself that he was willing to do anything in order to save his family… He knew, understand, and fully aware of his foolish decision.

Still, he wished this was all just a dream.

------------

Kakashi flipped his cellphone close with a smile on his face, a creaking voice had caught his attention then. His gazes switched to the entrance door of the ballroom, and saw his dear younger cousin stepped out.

"Oh, Sasuke. You're done already?" he greeted as he slipped his cellphone into his pocket.

The said man spared him a glance, before closing his eyes in a form of disinterest. "No, I'll stay a night here. You can go home if you want, here's the key." He replied as he threw his car's keys toward the older man.

The said man caught the key single-handedly, his smile morphed into a smirk. "Oh? Impatient as always, I see. But don't you think it's a bit too _soon_?"

Sasuke raised a fine brow. "What do you mean?"

Kakashi's expression suddenly grew stern, serious. "You heard Orochimaru back then, right? That boy is still _nineteen_, don't you think you should wait until he's ready?"

Sasuke brought his gazes up to his cousin, smirked, and snorted. "I _bought_ him, and he's mine. I can do _whatever_ I want with my property. After all, he's just a slave, you misplaced your worry, Kakashi. You shouldn—"

"He's a _human_ too, Sasuke. You should _**treat**_ him like one." Kakashi interrupted.

The Uchiha frowned at the ridiculous demand. "You're acting fairly odd, Kakashi. Don't you think you drank too much? Go home, and take a rest." Then he rotated on his feet, and began walking toward the opposite direction of his cousin.

"Tomorrow morning at seven, send Ren to pick me up." He said without looking, waving his hand up to the air.

As Sasuke walked away, Kakashi exhaled deeply.

He leaned his back against the wall, arching his head backwards, a hand rested on his forehead. "When will you learn, Sasuke?" he murmured softly.

--------------

Naruto stepped inside the empty lift, followed by his guide.

"Well, here we are." Said the person beside him, in a tone resembled hiss, as he pushed a button on the plate, and the sliding door closed.

Naruto said nothing, eyes fixed on the buttons on the metal plate. Orochimaru crossed his arms, and gestured, hand flung a dark strand that was disturbing his vision. A pair of golden eye scanned the boy beside him hungrily, slowly, from top to bottom.

Instinctively, Naruto turned to him, with vicious glare. "Stop that." He growled. "If you look at me _that_ way again, I _swear_ you'll be staying in the hospital for a **month**."

Orochimaru flinched involuntary at the blonde's threat, but tried to remain calm. "Oh? You actually _dare_ to threat me? Have you forgotten that I _helped_ you gain what you want?"

A snort. "And you get what's yours." He said in undignified tone. "I know you think I'm weak, but unfortunately I'm not. So stop belittling me, and stop staring at me with those disgusting eyes of yours."

Orochimaru's brows twitched indignantly, a dangerous smirk formed on the thin lips. "Hmm… so, Naruto-kun… you'll call your little friends to help you, then? Hmm?" he hissed, venom dripping on every word.

Naruto smiled lazily. "I don't need Sai or his men to take care the likes of _**you**_." He stated deadpanned.

Orochimaru's sneer dropped into a frown. "You think a rascal like you are so great?" he snarled, his calm demeanor had ruined. "What can a street rat like you do? What… can a _lowlife_ like you do to me, huh?"

The blonde's face fell in an instant, darkened, while mind drown in anger. A balled fist tightened involuntary, almost too painful. With a look on his face, that had made the pale man flinched away, he pulled his balled fist backwards.

"You—"

Ding.

His fist stopped in mid-air as the sliding door opened, the lift had brought them to the floor they intended to get on. A few people, who were just about to enter the lift, were shocked to see two men were just about to start a fracas. Naruto cursed loudly under his breath, and withdrew his outstretched fist, glaring at the slightly frightened man.

"You got lucky." He muttered fiercely. "I'll go alone, I don't need your help anymore."

Without waiting for any sort of reaction, Naruto rushed out of the lift, slipping past the crowd.

Orochimaru rested his back against the cold steal wall, wiping sweat from his temple.

_Filthy, arrogant brat._ He mused frantically. _You think you can get whatever you want, how foolish._ Another dangerous smirk had formed on his lips once again.

_I'll __**show**__ you…_

------------------

"_Are you nuts!? Do you know what it means!? That is the craziest thing I've ever heard!!" Sai shouted in great disbelief, but the blonde was serious._

Naruto stopped on his track, inhaled deeply.

"_Of course I do, if I didn't, why would I go to you in the first place?"_

Slowly and hesitantly, he brought his azure eyes up to the door. "1080. This is the room." He murmured softly. A fist slowly leaned upward, prepared to knock.

"…_Are you really sure about this?"_

Naruto paused.

Those voices inside his head began to rung irritatingly, warning, persuading, telling him not to do it, and forcing him to stop all action. A sudden dull pain stung his head, and waves of nausea once again, flooding his insides. He could feel the pain gnawing on his intestine, slow and tormenting, vicious and harsh. The impact of the pain made him groaned in agony, he clutched the thin fabric covering his belly, as the pain grew worse, his grasp tightened.

'_Don't knock. Don't go in.'_ A voice inside his head spoke again. _'You'll get hurt. You'll regret it. You'll lose everything. Don't.'_

"But I have to." Naruto mouthed incoherently. If someone saw him talking to himself like this, they must've thought he was crazy.

'_No, you don't!' _the voice snarled. _'You don't deserve this! You had done nothing wrong! You can just run away!'_

"I can't—" the word dying on his lips, replaced by another pained groan. Naruto panted slightly, as he tried to restrain himself from losing to the pain and the voices inside his head.

"…I can't do it. I promise Iruka, that I'll do anything, anything to keep us together. I can't run away, I have to keep my promise, and I _will_." Naruto panted once again, and used his hand to knock the door. The knocks were soft, almost too soft to be heard.

'_Hmph. You'll regret it later.'_ And the voice gone, and the pain also vanished as soon as it commenced. Naruto quickly regained his posture, and straightened himself. And allowed himself a simple smile.

"I know." He murmured, shutting his eyes.

That voice… it might came from his inner mind, a form created by his fear and anxiety, which morphed into anger, toward himself.

The door slowly opened. As it finally opened widely, it revealed Sasuke Uchiha, his master, wearing a loose white bath robe, which showed some of his smooth pale skin of his neck and collarbone. Raven hair damp and sticking wildly to his face, and a sneer graced his handsome complexion as he tilted his head up in an arrogant manner. Dark onyx eyes flashed crimson, sparing a brief glance to the shorter boy.

"You're here." He stated blandly. "Took you long enough."

The said blonde glared to him, gritted his teeth in annoyance. "At _least_ I came."

A chuckle. "Then come on in." Sasuke moved his body, to make a way for the blonde.

Naruto did, he shoved himself into the gap between the door and the older man. When the he heard the door closing, the voice rang in his head again.

'_You'll __**regret**__ it.'_

--------------

"Oww!" the sharp edge of the knife cut the brunette's index finger.

"Ah! Otousan, are you okay!?" shrieked a young blonde girl beside him, tugging on his apron.

The said brunette winced in pain as he slipped his injured finger into his mouth, sucking on the bleeding wound. "Don't worry, Kazuna, it's just a scratch." He said assuringly, smiling down to his daughter.

The said girl snorted, hands in akimbo. "No! Even a small scratch could be infected by bacteria's if not properly cleaned! Hold on, Otousan, I'll go grab the First Aid kit for you!" with that, the ten-year old girl swirled on her heels, and ran out of the kitchen.

Iruka sighed deeply, Kazuna has grown into a quiet fussy girl, guess he had to blame the twins for that. They kept busying the older girl with their pranks everyday… Iruka smiled as he imagined Kazuna would become a fine housewife in the future. But frowned at the fact he had to give up his precious daughter to some _meddling_ guy who wanted to marry her someday.

The pain on his finger abated quickly, and he drew out his finger, staring at it and shaking it idly. It was a pity Naruto couldn't go home tonight, he said it was because he had some trouble in his workplace, but Iruka had made Bolognaise Pasta, Naruto's favorite food after ramen.

A smile graced his feature. "I have to spare some for him later."

--------------

Naruto sat on the soft bed, fidgeting uncomfortably.

The raven who had his back against the wall, chuckled at the blonde's restless behavior. "Nervous?" he said teasingly. Naruto tensed at the statement, but glared at him as the reply.

"None of your business." He snarled.

Sasuke raised a dark brow, but sneered at the same time. Then he began to walk away from the wall he was leaning against, slowly approaching the younger one. Naruto flinched slightly as the older man was getting closer to him, but kept his alert gazes locked on Sasuke's. At the sight of those rebellious blue eyes glaring at him, Sasuke couldn't help but to allow his sneer to grow wider. Such an intriguing boy, no one had the guts to treat Sasuke Uchiha like that before.

And it only made him more_ eager_.

"So…" he muttered softly as he leaned his body forward, forcing the other boy to move backwards. "I heard that you're still a virgin… is that correct?" he asked, spreading his arms around the blonde, caging him.

Naruto couldn't stop the blush creeping on his face, the raven's question had undeniably offended him, as he heard the tone of his voice filled with mockery. "I'm-it's not…" he stuttered incoherently, throwing his eyes away.

Sasuke chuckled. "So… it's true after all." He muttered huskily as he leaned in again, forced Naruto to press his back against the bed. Blue eyes grew wide as he realized how awkward their current position was, underneath the raven, while two lean arms caging him firmly.

Panic rose to his expression, mind slightly blurry. Instinctively, he used both of his hands to push the raven away, to create as much space between them as possible. But before it could happen, Sasuke had his own hand grasping Naruto's tightly, a stern look on his face.

"You're not supposed to resist _me_." He murmured darkly, dangerous. "I had bought you, you're mine to do whatever I want. _Anything_ I want." Naruto gasped as the grip tightened.

"Be obedient, slave." The words escaped mercilessly. "Do what I told you to, and I will be gentle, since this is your first time."

Naruto stared up to Sasuke, then glared in full force. "I don't need _you_ telling me what to do." He snarled challengingly.

Sasuke allowed a frown graced his face. "So, you like it in the hard way. Fine, so be it then." Then the Uchiha grasped both of Naruto's wrists with one hand, and pinned them over his head.

When Naruto was about to let out a protest, the word died in his lips, as another pair covering his, muffling every sound Naruto made. It was a harsh, forceful kiss. Sasuke pressed his lips harder, using his teeth to masticate on the moist flesh, tugging and pulling, dragging them across the lower curve, eliciting groans from the mouth it abused. Naruto began thrashing beneath him, struggled his wrist to break the firm clutch, but to no avail, Sasuke was stronger than him.

Naruto gasped into the kiss with wide eyes as he felt something hard _brushed_ his clothed manhood, and soon came to realize Sasuke had began to grind his hips against his, creating hot friction between their members, the friction was rough, but it was able to make the blonde bucked unwillingly, and let out a restrained moan into the kiss. Detached from Naruto's lips, Sasuke proceeded to trail kisses to his neck, the vibration he felt from the blonde's neck allowed him to know Naruto's breaths had came out short and harsh.

"Wh-what…" Naruto panted erratically. Sasuke said nothing, as he continued sucking hard on a certain sensitive spot, also with the intense grinding.

"Mmmhhh!! Fuck!" Naruto moaned involuntary, tugging his wrists up at the same time. Sasuke smirked on the red bruise he just made, a free hand slipped into Naruto's sleeve-less top, dragging it up, feeling the toned muscles. The blonde quivered as he felt a cold hand traveling on his torso, slowly moved up, then moved down. He thrashed more violently as he realized _**where**_ exactly that hand was heading to.

"Aahh… b-bastard! S-stop!" he bucked up his hips to drive the hand away.

Unexpectedly, the hand did stopped, and pulled away.

Naruto found a pair of onyx eye was staring at him irritatedly, a frown marred his handsome feature. "You don't understand, do you?" he said coldly. The tone sent shivers up Naruto's spine, and he gulped nervously.

The onyx eyes flashed dangerously. "If you continue struggling, you would hurt yourself, and might hurt me too. It's better if you stop." He stated. "You are _my_ slave, you should've known the risks of becoming one. And _**this**_, is one of them." The grip on Naruto's wrists loosened, and the hand withdrew to its owner.

"If you stop struggling, I could make this pleasurable for both of us. It's better than to force you, isn't it?" a hand caressed Naruto's scarred cheek gently. "And I don't wish to scar you, understand?"

Naruto was dumbfounded.

Those words, the statements, were being said so hastily, that he could barely consume it. To give his virginity, his innocence to this man, to _anyone _he doesn't know well, was an unbearable fact for him. But Sasuke had _bought_ him, his body and freedom. Naruto couldn't deny the fact that Sasuke had given him the money he needed for his family, and for the exchange of it, he must give up everything for the said raven. _Everything_. It was something he couldn't resist, he was a slave now, a slave who obligated to obey every command his master told him. He had said to himself, had he? That he didn't care whatever happened to him as long as his family is safe and sound. And he was always a man of his words.

Reality always harsh and cruel.

_Always_.

Soft grunts escaped Naruto's lips. "What?" Sasuke asked, his ears barely caught the words.

Hesitantly, Naruto repeated louder. "Just… just be gentle." He muttered, averting his gaze.

A smirk had formed on the raven's face. "I shall." He said, as he descended to capture the blonde's lips. Naruto closed his eyes in anticipation, different than the forceful one before; this one was much softer, gentler. Sasuke shoved out his tongue, slowly tracing it on Naruto's lower lip. Naruto mewled softly, his hands fisting on the sheets below tightly. The Uchiha cupped the blonde's chin, using his thumb to part those luscious lips, and tilted Naruto's head to side, to deepen the kiss.

As Sasuke's tongue entered him, a jolt of pleasure shot up Naruto's insides. He moaned wantonly, unwillingly. It was such an odd sensation, Sasuke's tongue trailed across his teeth and gum, coaxing his own tongue to action, and his hand fisting Naruto's hair as their kiss deepened. Tugging painfully, but succeeded on _thrilling_ him.

"Hmmm… nnnn…" he mewled, as Sasuke once again started experimental grinds on their growing erection. Naruto felt himself was getting _aroused_, and hard. Such an odd feelings.

Was it wrong to feel pleasure like this?

Sasuke pulled away with a sound of 'smack' created by their parting lips. Staring down, he saw Naruto's azure eyes had clouded by lust, but still rebellious at the same time. As if refusing to submit completely, in his own way. But Sasuke ignored it, as it was one of the reasons of why he was willing to buy this slave after all. Naruto was different from other people around him. He dared to hit him even though he knew Sasuke was his employer, he was a blunt kind of a guy, a rebel.

But that's what intrigued him more.

"Your name… Naruto, was it?" he asked softly, a hand playing on the hem of the younger man's jeans, the other slowly unbuttoned it.

Naruto managed to cast him a glare. "Y-yes."

"_Sasuke_." The raven said. "You may call me that at times like this."

"What do you—"

The word exchanged by a loud gasp, as Sasuke abruptly pulled the jeans down, revealing an orange boxer underneath. With wide eyes that filled with fear and curiosity, he stared down the raven, who was stripping his robe off, displaying flawless pale torso, washboard abs, and firm muscles perfectly framed his graceful features. Sasuke was indeed beautiful, but the thoughts didn't crossed Naruto's mind now, as it was filled with bewilderment of the older man's action.

The bare raven hovering over him, staring deep into those ocean depths, noticing the fears it hid behind. "Don't worry." He murmured huskily near Naruto's ear, sucking on the soft lobe. "I'll make this good." Then he pulled away, and repositioned himself down to Naruto's southern region, pulling down the boxer harshly to his knees.

"Wh-what… Ngghhh!" the blonde moaned aloud, as he felt a cold hand gathered his hard length, a thumb rubbing its slit experimentally. Pre-cums began to leak from Naruto's penis, and Sasuke was stroking it slowly, eliciting more moans and groans from Naruto's mouth, as swarms of pleasure washed his insides, clouding him with needs and desire. Naruto bucked up his hip, wanting more, needing more, more friction to satisfy his aching needs.

Sasuke granted himself a smirk, and headed down, shoving his tongue out to lick the side of Naruto's head. "A-aaahhh!" the blonde moaned out involuntary, and Sasuke ran his moist tongue around the head, dipping its moist edge into the slit teasingly every so often.

"Nnnn! Aaahhh… S-Sasu…!" Naruto slammed a hand to cover his mouth, preventing the name escaping his throat.

The raven's eyebrows twitched indignantly, before he swallowed Naruto's heavily leaking member inside his hot cavern, deep throating him. The intense contact of his penis inside such a hot and moist cavern, deep, especially when Sasuke began to suck him off hard, gnawing his teeth across the head, making him arching his back, bucked his hips, squeezed his eyes shut in intense pleasure that blurred his mind. The foreign sensation blowing his mind off, as he had never felt something as good as _**this**_. It was all too much for Naruto to restrain his screams much longer, the pleasure, the desire, the lust, all of it burst out of his mind.

"Mmmmhhh!!! Aaahh! Sasuke!!" he screamed as he sprayed hard into Sasuke's mouth, arching his head back, eyes rolled, and hands released his mouth, grasping the sheets as he rode his first orgasm, fists turned pallid.

Sasuke allowed some of the substance to enter his throat, while the remained liquid dripping from his mouth, created a long trail along his chin, neck, collarbone, and to the white chest. The sticky white fluid split on the sheets disorderly, between the spreaded legs.

Naruto flopped on his back, his breaths were short, harsh, and erratic from his recent orgasm. He was exhausted as if all the energy had left him, but it was… such a mind-blowing experience, Naruto never knew a blow-job was this amazing, he never had a girlfriend after all, his knowledge about sex was bordered to masturbation and anal sex (hetero) only, he certainly had never done this with a guy before, much less a girl.

Naruto snapped aware as he felt _something_ slicked intruded his puckered entrance, brought him to alertness. Quickly, he shifted his gazes down, horrified.

"Bastard! What the hell are you doing!?" he mouthed aloud, bewilderment once again overcame his senses.

"What is it like I am doing?" the raven asked back, as he slowly pushed the slicked digit inside. Naruto hissed in pain as the finger trespassing his inside, it wasn't much, but still, it hurt.

"S-stop! It hurts!" Naruto shrieked, trying to push Sasuke's hand away.

But instead of making the raven pulling away, another pair of lips latched on his again, while the finger began to move in him. Naruto groaned into the kiss, and tried to push Sasuke's shoulder, but the older man had his weight fully on Naruto, so the blonde couldn't move him even an inch.

_This is wrong_, he mused_. I don't want this, I never want this._

The voices returned again.

'_I told you not to go in, but you did anyway. It's all your fault.'_

_I have no choice._ He defended himself. _This is the price, a price I must pay for my family's safety._

Sasuke pulled away, and added the second finger, stretching him, and the other hand started to pump the blonde back to hardness. While his mouth busy trailing sloppy wet kisses along the blonde's torso, sucking and biting on the tan skin. Naruto writhed and moaned, eyes screwed shut, and arched his back.

A snort. _'You're a fool.'_ The voice mocked. _'__**Look**__ at you, writhing and moaning like a whore. Leaning to that guy's touches… What term fit someone like you more than a __**'needy slut'**__? Oh, scratch that, maybe __**'filthy whore'**__ fit you too.'_

_Stop it._

"Mmmhh… Naruto…" Sasuke moaned as he lubed his hard length, hissing at the cool sensation the gel gave him.

Naruto said nothing, eyes narrowed, blank.

'_And when he gave you the head? You were __**enjoying**__ it, weren't you? And minutes after you struggled like your life was at stake, pathetic.'_ The voice in his mind chuckled darkly.

_Stop it, stop, stop, stop!_

Sasuke threw Naruto's legs over his shoulder, and positioned his leaking member in front of the blonde's entrance.

'_Naruto Uzumaki, the fearless nine-tailed fox of the Godchild street, now is a slave, a whore, and is about to get his brain screwed off. Giving his innocence to some random guy he only had known for the last three hours… How ironic.'_

_STOP!!!_

And Sasuke slowly slid in.

"Aaahhh!!!" Naruto screamed as a dull pain shot up his spine.

Sasuke grunted some curses, and stopped to let the blonde adjust his size. Naruto grasped the sheets fiercely, so hard that it turned pallid. A drop of tear rolled down to his scarred cheek, the pain, it was too much…

"A-are you alright?" the raven panted over him. "Do you want me to stop?"

_Yes._

Naruto shook his head no. That was more than enough permission for him, Sasuke pushed his member further until he reached the hilt, muttered a "Fuck!" as he felt the blonde's intense heat covering him. Naruto mewled as Sasuke pulled out slowly, only to slam back in again, eliciting pained groan from the blonde, and more tears leaked out.

"Naruto…" Sasuke muttered, as he pressed his weight on Naruto's legs, and began a steady pace. Dark strands tickling the blonde's nose.

Naruto couldn't hear, couldn't think, couldn't say anything.

As he slid in and out of the blonde, Sasuke grasped the blonde's hard member, and began to pump it in time with his frantic thrusts. Naruto could only moan and writhed as his prostate was being abused, and in the same time he was being stroked hard. The waves of pleasure was unbearable, making his entire body shook, arched, and writhed in pleasure. Fluids boasted out of his mouth, trickling down his chin.

Naruto came with a loud scream, dots of white appeared behind his eyelids, as he exploded onto his stomach, and Sasuke's. Almost at the same time, Sasuke also lost it. A few hard thrust was enough for him, the layers of muscles engulfed him tightened, and he came hard, into Naruto, filling him with his hot seeds.

The blonde flopped down to the bed, panting frantically, and heavily. Sasuke moved his body to side, and flopped down beside the blonde, completely spent. Naruto closed his eyes as he enjoyed the afterglow of his orgasm. Then he slowly opened his eyelids, staring at the ceiling.

The voices in his head were still mocking him.

What he felt after he had lost his virginity was…

Shame.

---------------

A poof of smoke escaped Sai's thin lips.

His mind was clearly not in place, to be frankly, he was worried about a certain blonde haired teen, his best friend's well-being. Naruto said he was called by his _master_ into one of the hotel rooms, in private. Sai couldn't help but to feel worry, he _knew_ clearly what was that meant. What if Naruto—

"Fuck!!" He cursed indignantly, kicking a garbage can in the dark alleyway outside the hotel, ant it startled his men.

"B-boss?" asked one of them hesitantly, but quickly backed away by a brief glare the usually calm teen gave him. Sai ignored his frightened subordinates, and proceeded to kick the already fallen garbage can wantonly.

_Shit! If that bastard dares to hurt Naruto, I swear I'll—_

"Boss!! Boss! Bad news!!" shouted another man, one of his subordinates also, was running toward him with a bothered look on his face.

"What is it!? Can't you tell that I'm busy?" Sai snarled viciously, and the said man flinched.

"N-no… but, it's important!" he muttered in fear.

But that caught Sai's full attention, he realized he was exaggerating, he stopped his rant. "Speak up." He said briefly.

"Yes!" his subordinate cried. "A little while ago, I saw Orochimaru entered a limousine, carrying a lot of bags with him… But I didn't see Naruto-san in it, so I was thinking—"

"Wait, what?" Sai asked, unsure.

"Um, I saw Orochimaru was leaving the hotel in a limousine… But I didn't see Naruto-san around, so I was thinking, maybe he left him without—"

The cigarette fell from Sai's lips, as realization hit him.

Balled his fists and gritted his teeth, Sai's expression morphed into a frightening one, causing each of his subordinate to flinch away in fear. They knew their boss was immensely furious, they rarely saw such a look on the usually stoic man.

"_That son of a bitch!!!_" Sai yelled frantically.

Sai shut his eyes in attempt to calm himself, but it failed to conceal the anger that showed on his complexion quiet perfectly. The dark haired man swirled on his heels, facing his subordinate.

"Gather all of our men, quick! Send a massage to Kimimaro; operation ROOTS, activated!" he shouted aloud.

"O-operation ROOTS? Are you serious!?" one of them squeaked.

Sai scowled at him. "Yes, I am. We're not letting that sly snake escape! _I'll show him not to mess around with the ruler of Godchild!_"

"Y-YES!"

Sai picked up his long black coat, and flung it over his shoulder. Coal eyes flashed in what seemed to resemble an eagle's eyes, eying on its prey cautiously. But with a faint hint of gentleness inside those cold orbs.

_Naruto, I'll take care of this, don't worry…_

Slowly, Sai opened his eyes, signaling to his subordinate.

"Let's go."

-------------

To be continued.

**A/N :** ……………NO! Please don't kill me!! I just thought 'That's what Orochimaru gonna do!' that's all, honest! And maybe the lemon was not as some of you had expected… -put fingers together like Hinata- But I wanted to write about how Naruto feels about all the things happened to him, because it was all too fast, and confusing… And I want to try writing those 'mental struggles' thingy, and the lemon was half about actions, and the rest was inner struggles. Maybe it was weird? Don't worry, though. The lemons in the later chaps will be much more graphic and willing. After all, I have promised lots of smuts for this one, but with a proper storyline and plots, that is.

Aaaahhh! Let me know your opinion about it!! REVIEW!! A line or two for opinions about it would be nice… :3 And I'll answer any question you throw on me! Constructive criticism would be very much loved also!

Ja, Mata Ne!


	7. Chapter 7 : Fixing The Broken Pieces

**Disclaimer :** Confession of a false claim of Naruto copyright would put me in negative charges of crime, and might got me jailed, and obligated to pay the fine, and yes, therefore, I DO NOT OWN NARUTO.

**A/N :** Wow… I received _so_ many reviews of sudden booming of Sai's fans and countless rants toward Orochimaru, which surprised me quiet a bit. There was slight confusion regarding the voices in Naruto's head, though. So let me explain it to you beforehand. Some questioned; is the voices in Naruto's head came from someone that _lives_ within him? The answer is **no**. The voices Naruto heard in his mind, wasn't came from someone, or something possessing him, but, instead, it came from the depths of Naruto's inner heart. It was just like the voices in our mind after we did something bad, we would feel regrets, ne?

Anyway, reply for the anonymous reviews:

**rEdXiLl7 : **Of course I'll continue! Hopefully, I won't get much writer's block…

**ddd :** As I say, this fic is SasuNaru, and I won't change it, dear. I don't really like the idea of two good friends become lovers, except SasuNaru, 'coz it's a friends _and_ rivals relationship.

**Lonelylulaby :** Nope, it wasn't an acronym, dear. ROOTS is a name of an operation controlled by four gang bosses of Godchild street, it's like some sort of a call for emergency situation, like gang fights and others akin to it.

**RoseOfSuna : **Hehehe, thank you! And Sasuke meeting Naruto's family… let's just see, 'kay?

**PumpkinTale :** Yes, I tried my best to keep things plausible, hopefully, it works!

**RandomReader : **I've updated now!

**Milly :** I totally agree with you, let us punish Orochimaru!

Enjoy!

-------------

**Chapter 7 : Fixing The Broken Pieces**

Darkness.

Was the first thing Naruto saw as his eyes fluttered open.

Tired blue eyes blinked numerously, before began to move around the room, scanning his surroundings. He was in a room, he noticed, the room was dark and the only source of light was the lamp on the nightstand. The room was filled with chilling air exited from the aircon, it made him quivered in cold, seeing him was covered by nothing but a layer of blanket. Though he felt cold, he could sense some heat nearby. Naruto twisted his head to side, to gaze at the source of the heat.

It was him.

Sasuke Uchiha.

The images of the previous evening returned into his head, rushing fast into his mind, his brain. So fast, that he was shocked himself. The auction, Sai, Orochimaru, the money, the debt… everything. And… also the memories when he lost his virginity, to the man who was sleeping beside him now, flashed in his mind, so fast, so hasty, so… merciless. When Sasuke touched him, kissed him, snarled at him, and did those things to him… and those voices.

Those malicious voices.

Naruto felt sudden waves of nausea washed his insides again, overflowing his senses with disgust, shame, anger, and a mix of other unsanitary emotions. His stomach ached painfully, and he felt like vomiting, something seemed spun wildly inside his stomach, urging him to immediately go to the bathroom and emptied his cavity. Clutching on his bare stomach, Naruto quickly got up to sit. Then a sharp pain suddenly jolted up his spine from his healing backside, causing him to let out a strangled groan of pain, tears welled at the corners of his eyes.

Naruto felt his anal path was burning; the dull pain unnerved his legs, his body quivered slightly. But then, it was something natural, he thought. It is supposed to hurt him a lot after his first time – after he lost his virginity. After a while, Naruto tried to remove himself off the bed and walk to the bathroom, but found it really hard to do without limping.

But he stubbornly did anyway.

After he had emptied his stomach, Naruto proceeded by washing his face with the sink. He felt a lot better, his nausea had abated a bit, but his nerves still angry. After he'd done, he closed the tap, and brought his gazes to the mirror. Staring at his own reflection.

At his impure self.

"…I'm pathetic, aren't I?" Naruto muttered softly, a sarcastic smile formed on his lips.

He was utterly angered and disgusted by himself. For surrendering so easily, for not putting up a fight, for being so pathetically weak, for… _enjoying_ the pale man's touches. His lips, his fingers, his kisses, were able to sent flares of pleasure into his body. Every time his white slender fingers touched him, caressed him, heat spread from the skin Sasuke touched, driving him mad with forbidden desires, needs, lust. He was able to make Naruto felt _good_, pleasured, satisfied, though the younger man didn't want - never wanted that from him.

And yet, he had enjoyed it.

Naruto laughed weakly.

In the verge of losing his innocence, the voices reminded him of how _pathetic_ and _weak_ he was. Mocked him in a way that had made Naruto came to disgust himself, loathing every bit of his corrupted self to no end. But… there was an exception.

Naruto had to admit that Sasuke wasn't as heartless as he had thought before. If he didn't care anything regarding to him, he wouldn't ask for his permission, and just raped him relentlessly. And broke Naruto even more. But he didn't. He might be selfish and forceful, but he wasn't that bad. Yes, Sasuke certainly wasn't the nicest and friendliest guy, and he acted like a bastard the whole time, but he wasn't evil. Maybe he used force first, but later he stopped and asked Naruto's permission, because he didn't want Naruto to get hurt, and tried to be gentle because he knew Naruto was a virgin.

He showed some gentleness the blonde didn't expect.

Maybe… maybe Sasuke wasn't such a jerk after all. Naruto mused. But that didn't mean Naruto would forgive him and accept him so easily, he still hated Sasuke, and simple things like that won't change the fact that he had done terrible things to him.

When Naruto realized it, his nausea had completely gone, and his nerves had calmed.

_Finally_, Naruto mused. Exited from the bathroom, he picked up his wasted outfit from the floor, and put it on. His legs still shook, and the dull pain still tormenting his waist, but Naruto didn't care and proceeded limping to the bed. He sat on the bedside, and glanced at the clock hung on the wall.

01:01 A.M. – it was still so late.

Naruto decided it would be best to sleep again, maybe the pain will fade by the morning. The blonde slid his legs into the cover carefully, but halted half-way as he caught the peaceful expression of the man who slept beside him. Naruto watched as Sasuke's chest heaved up and down with steady rhythm, face relaxed, and looked a bit childish as he was deep in slumber. No one could've guessed that this man was the one who had took his virginity seeing his peaceful sleeping face now.

Shrugged his shoulders, Naruto continued until his body was entirely underneath the blanket, and he slowly closed his eyes.

In seconds, he had drifted into deep slumber.

-------------

The city in the nighttime was the worst.

The light of the day always covered the true face of this city, the divine light of sun kept the darkness at bay, bordered its movement. But after the sun dusked red in the West, and left the other part of the world to greet the others, nothing else remained and stayed to prevent the darkness from overcoming the entire sky, the earth, and its citizen. And the true darkness, the true faces of the human kind were revealed by the time ocean of stars formed in the endless dark sky. Crimes, sins, foul acts, cruelty, murder, thievery, every negative occurrences happened more often in the night, showing the ugly sides of the humans, their deepest, darkest, most terrifying desires surfaced only in the nighttime, something they couldn't display in the day, where the sun was up there, watching and observing.

That's why, Sai needed _**him**_ to keep the darkness at bay, his darkness.

When the said man shouted his men to move and give him a way, they obeyed obediently. The dark-haired man, accompanied by one of the Godchild rulers, a beautiful man with silver hair tied up in high ponytail that reached his waist, cautiously heading fort. Then soon, he stopped on his track, and two dull obsidian eyes turned down to the helpless pale man, who sat down on the grassy ground, quivering and shaking frantically in fear, a pair of widened yellow eyes glanced restlessly at the younger man, calm demeanor ruined completely and his condition was messy, fear and fright flashed in those golden eyes.

"Can't do anything… aren't we?" he chuckled, eyes curved upward, and a sickening smile graced his equally pale complexion. The silver haired man beside him said nothing, only observing.

The said older man flinched slightly. "You… you made a deal!! Y-you can't h-harm me, we made a deal, I helped your friend!" he exclaimed hoarsely, desperately.

"A deal? Hmm…" Sai tilted his head to side, a hand cupped his chin in a thinking manner. "Oh! The deal of sharing the money, you mean!" he clasped his hands together, in an obviously fake act.

"Well, you see, Orochimaru…" Sai slowly descended on his knees, kneeling until he was eye-level with the older man. With an obvious fake smile, he leaned forward until their faces only inches apart.

"The deal was off." The smile fell instantly. "The moment you stepped out of that hotel in attempt to run with Naruto's money – betraying him, the deal became pointless." Those words escaped his mouth coldly, mercilessly, filled with strangled fury.

Sai stood up, staring down Orochimaru apathetically. "There is _**no**_ deal, Orochi. Funny thing is, I actually thought that at least there's a tiny bit of dignity left in you, and that thirty percent of the total money was large enough to satisfy you… And yet, you've been a complete fool, and underestimating my power. You should've known better, that this city is the Godchild children's playground."

"Y-you!! If the cops knew, you and your friends will—"

"Capture me? Cops? Pfft, ahahahaha!" Sai began to laugh hysterically, clutching on his stomach tightly. Even tears began to form at the corner of his eyes.

"Ahahaha… that is the most hilarious joke I've ever heard!" He exclaimed, wiping the tears away, then kneeled down again, a smile once again was allowed to grace his feature.

"Didn't you listen to my words earlier, Orochi?" he said. "I _knew_ all the business happened in this city, including the dirty affairs and its underground activities. Don't think that I didn't know about your recent… escapades." He sneered as Orochimaru's face ashen.

Sai grabbed a long dark strand of Orochimaru's hair, and idly played with it. "How would they do to you, if the cops knew that you have an affair with drug-dealers? Oh, no, no. I mean, I wonder if they knew you _were_ once a drug-dealer yourself? And that you… got all of those stuff you auctioned from the black market? Not to mention the fact that you just sold a slave a couple hours ago, I wonder what would they do to you if they found out? Hmm?" Sai purred dangerously, enjoying how Orochimaru couldn't return his statements and his face grew darker as more revelations were discovered.

"Bos! I found the briefcase where the money was!" shouted one of Sai's subordinate.

With a smile, Sai got up. "Well, I think this is it, my business here was done. Good bye, Orochimaru, I hope we never meet again. Oh, if you ever saw me again, you'd better leave, crawl or whatever you snakes do, back to your little hole." Then he backed away, waving his hands.

A chuckle. "I suppose… my boys wanted to play with you, is that alright? Boys, don't be so hard on him, let him live… for now." With that, he swirled on his heels, and began walking away, ignoring Orochimaru's shrieks.

As soon as he got a hold on the briefcase, he headed toward his motorcycle to return to the hotel and give Naruto what was his. "Wait." The silver haired man halted him when he was putting on his black leather coat.

"What is it, Kimimaro?" Sai asked confusedly.

The beautiful man's eyes were fervent, Sai knew he was serious. "Sai… you acted odd tonight. This is completely unreasonable, calling us, ROOTS, with the entire army only to chase after an unworthy snake? What are the advantages we gain from this reckless act?" he questioned fiercely.

Sai was dumbfounded.

"I… I just wanted to help my best friend, that's all, Kimimaro. He deserves this money, after all he'd gone through. I don't want to see his sacrifice in vain, I…" he gulped, averting his eyes.

"I want him to be happy." He concluded, then put on a black helmet.

Kimimaro's expression was indifferent. "Do you still love him?"

Sai stiffened at the demanding question.

The silver haired man sighed. "You still do, don't you?" he flung a long strand of bang.

Sai said nothing, as he continued to secure his helmet, and start the machine. Before he took off, he glanced at the silver-haired man. "Kimimaro, sorry, but I count on you on cleaning this mess, and don't let Suigetsu beat the snake too much!" and then he dashed.

The highway was almost empty, the street lights lighting his way.

Kimimaro's questions were running in his mind, as he drove his motorcycle in a great speed.

_Do you still love him?_

Heh, what a straightforward question. _Does he still love Naruto?_ To be exact. Well, does he? After all the blonde's rejections, after almost nine years since Naruto left Godchild street to live with his new foster dad, after three years passed since Sai realized his feelings for the blonde wasn't just a mere brotherly love… nor just a puppy love either. Yes, he still loved Naruto. That obnoxious, loud-mouthed, stubborn, hot-headed, but kind, gentle, friendly, faithful, lovable child… the only child he had come to love since childhood, the one understood him the most, who befriended him without a second thought, accepted him whoever he was, whatever he has, always there when he needed him, always.

But he knew Naruto didn't love him.

He knew the blonde just couldn't think of him that way, for him, Sai was like a brother to him, the same as his other unrelated siblings. His love, his care, and his attention for him was brotherly, not some platonic feelings. Naruto was straight – or bisexual as Sai predicted, and he never saw Sai as a man, he saw him as a brother, a childhood friend, a teacher—anything but a lover.

But that's fine for Sai.

Because he won't force his love to Naruto, and ended up destroying their friendship. Naruto was Sai's best friend, his street brother, and that was fine, it was enough. As long as he still be a friend to Sai, always supporting him, keeping him out of unnecessary troubles, it was enough for him. He needed Naruto to guide him from being fully swallowed by the darkness, to keep his darkest malice at bay.

Naruto was the sun to him.

----------

When Naruto opened his eyes, a single ray of light spotted on his drowsy face.

Leaned his hand up to his face and shade his still-blurry baby blue eyes, he tried to gather all of his senses back. With blurry vision, he traveled his surroundings, and stopped once he saw a dark form was facing at him, but he still couldn't see right.

"You've finally awake." A deep voice said, Naruto barely identified whose voice it was.

"S-Sasuke?" he asked unsurely, narrowed his eyes to get a better look.

"I'm afraid not." The voice replied blandly.

Consumed the reply, Naruto suddenly tensed in alertness, quickly, he gathered as much nerves as he could, and got up to sit—only to let out a loud yelp as the same dull pain as before shot up his spine again.

"Please don't be so restless, I'm not here to hurt you." The mysterious person said, as he sat on the bedside, and leaned a hand to support Naruto.

But the blonde slapped that hand away. "Who are you!?" he snarled fiercely, still winced.

The person, who wore a formal black dress suit and has short auburn hair, rubbed his swollen hand as his grey eyes stared back at the blonde dully. "Kuon Ren, Naruto-sama. I am a professional bodyguard hired by the Uchiha family, as Master Sasuke's personal bodyguard, but now under strict orders by him, to serve you at the moment." He explained.

Blue eyes widened. "Wh-what? My bodyguard? You – Where's that bastard!?" he questioned frantically.

"If you're searching for Master Sasuke's presence, I'm afraid he had already gone to his workplace. And please, don't move around too much, your backside is still healing, I strongly recommend you to stay in the bed for a half of a day." Ren calmly replied, with the same indifferent stoic expression and dull formal tone.

"Y-You knew!?" Shouted Naruto in disbelieve, and then he glanced up to the clock.

10:44 A.M. – he had slept _that_ long!? And the bastard didn't wake him!

Naruto continued to cast rants and curses to a certain Uchiha, and Ren stayed collected and observed the blonde behavior calmly. After a good ten minutes, Naruto had gone tired and stopped, Ren took this as a sign to speak again.

"Naruto-sama, Master Sasuke had ordered me to take you to the Uchiha main house, and have your contacts arranged. After you're done and ready, please inform me, and I shall escort you to the car." Naruto twisted his attention to the stoic man.

"Contract? What contract?" he asked confusedly.

"Slavery contract, a contract you must sign as prove you had given up your ownership of your own body, and hand it to Master Sasuke." Ren briefly explained.

Naruto's eyes suddenly downcasted. "Oh… that." He murmured softly.

Ren then stood up. "Well, Naruto-sama, please inform me once you're ready to go, I shall wait for you outside." He bowed slightly, and began to walk.

"Wait." The bodyguard halted his movement obediently, then he turned his head toward the blonde who called him. "Um… Ren, was it?" he asked, and the said man nodded.

"You know… you don't have to act so formal around me, it's kinda uncomfortable, so just chill, 'kay? And call me 'Naruto', not 'Naruto-sama' or whatever those formalities…" he said, scratching his scarred cheek.

Ren showed an indifferent look. "I'm afraid it would be inconvenient, sir." He said. "I do not know any other language or accent that is non-formal, for I am trained this way, but if you're uncomfortable of the way I called you, then I shall call you 'Naruto-san' from now on."

"But that's—"

"Please inform me once you're ready." Ren bowed once again, before proceeded to leave.

As the door closed, Naruto was left wondering to himself.

_Rich people are freaks_, he mused, before decided to take a shower.

--------

When he stepped out of the lift, Naruto noticed the hall was already filled with a throng of people. Well, it was obvious, it already near noon, so people already woke up and ready. Because his legs were still shaky and limp, Ren thoughtfully support him by pulling his upper arm steady, so Naruto didn't look like he was limping.

"Thanks." The blonde muttered, and the stoic man nodded briefly.

Ren left Naruto on the sofa nearby, while the obedient bodyguard went to the reception desk to inform the check-out. Naruto sprawled on the soft cushion, pressed his back to the fluffy materiel behind, and relaxed. Wow, he mused. Even the sofa was so fluffy and comfy, no wonder this hotel was called a five-star hotel.

"Naruto!" the said teen's ears jerked, and he turned his gaze toward the source of the voice.

"Sai!" Naruto exclaimed in cheer, as the said older teen approached him.

"Hey." Sai greeted. "Took you long enough to come out, I thought you already left."

"I thought _you_ already left." Naruto said playfully. "What's up? What's with the bag?" he glanced at the black briefcase Sai was holding in his hand.

"Oh yeah, this is your money. One hundred million, no less." Sai said as he handed the briefcase to the blonde, who accepted it with both hands.

"Huh? Why's it full…? I thought the thirty percent belongs to Orochimaru?" he questioned confusedly.

"Well… he said it's fine, so… you can have it all." Sai lied, smiling soothingly. But somehow, Naruto doubted Sai was telling the truth, he was Sai's friend since childhood after all. "Sai… what was going on?" he asked suspiciously, and the said older teen tensed slightly.

"Naruto-san, who might this gentleman be?" a bland voice suddenly interrupted them.

The two teens switched to the source of the voice. "Ren…" Naruto muttered, while Sai wondered bewilderedly. "Naruto, who's this guy? Your friend?" he asked the blonde.

"Oh, he's…" Naruto trailed off, unsure.

"My name is Kuon Ren, Naruto-san's personal bodyguard. If I'm not mistaken, are you, by any chance, Naruto-san's friend?" Ren asked politely.

"Yeah. I'm Sai, nice to meet you… Ren." Sai muttered unsurely.

"The pleasure is all mine." Ren replied blandly, before turned to Naruto. "Naruto-san, are you ready to go? If you want to have a friendly chat first, I could wait." Before Naruto replied, Sai cut him off.

"Oh, no, no! I have some… other business to attend, so I can't be here any longer. Go ahead, Naruto!" The blonde cast him a weird look, but complied anyway, after he bade Sai farewell, he left with Ren.

Once the blonde was out of vision, Sai flopped down the sofa, and sighed.

"That was close…" he muttered softly. He didn't want Naruto to know that he had beaten the snake guy to get the money back, he knew Naruto wouldn't like it. Sai closed his eyes as he relaxed.

"Sai…?" upon hearing someone called him, Sai's obsidian eyes fluttered open, and grew wide as he saw the person in front of him. The person whom he loathe the most in this world.

"Danzo…!" he gasped.

The man who had abandoned him.

He, an illegitimate child.

---------------

To be continued!

**A/N :** Hem… I suppose you're wondering about the much suspense in this story, but of course I will explain each of them slowly, so it'll be understandable. I wrote some about Sai, seeing the amount of his fans seems increasing, one of the reviewers asked me if I could tell about Naruto's past before Iruka took him in, and I have to say that I do have plans about that. Yeah, I'm gonna write it slowly and nicely, anyway, with this chapter seven posted, we can advance to the next stage! This is only just the beginning, folks, like an epilogue of a prolog. The first few chapters explained of how Naruto became a slave, and now his life as a slave. I created another OC character, because I couldn't find anyone else suitable enough. Do you like him? He's an obedient type of a guy, cool and calm, but kind and gentle, definitely my type!

As for the side pairings, I'll have KakaIru, GaaNeji, and ShikaTema (sorry, my mistake) . If you want to suggest another pairings, tell me! Review, please! Personally, I think this chapter is rather odd…

Ja, Mata Ne!


	8. Chapter 8 : The Distance Between Us

**Disclaimer** : Applies to all chapters, which means, I DO NOT OWN NARUTO! But if you wanna give me one, it's okay…

**A/N :** Okay, so maybe the previous chappie was weird, really weird, and that's why I couldn't take my head off of it! Now, I want to speed things a little, 'coz if it's too slow, you'll be bored, right? From this chapter onwards, you may encounter much longer chapters, because I have a fetish of detailing things, which is not very good sometimes… anyway, I'll apply the smuts, whether the short one or the graphic one, hope you'll enjoy it! Firstly, hints of KakaIru here!

Reply for the anonymous reviews (sorry, I spaced out) :

**Angel of friendship :** Thank you, Happy Holiday to you too!

**Ddd :** No, he isn't. I have to say that Orochimaru won't appear in a long time!

**Tetsuya :** Yeah, thought so too. I'll take it as an advice, thanks!

Enjoy!

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**Chapter 8 : The Distance Between Us**

The moment Naruto stepped out of the black Jaguar, he was utterly awed by the sight before his azure eyes.

The auburn haired bodyguard, closed the car door carefully, then flipped to the amazed boy. "Naruto-san, we have arrived. This is The Uchiha main house, where the prestigious Uchiha family lives." He explained briefly, though Naruto was too transfixed to pay attention.

Before him, was a huge luxurious white mansion, similar to the ones he saw in the TV. The building seemed resembled European architecture; it has small minarets on each edges of the building, the lower part of the wall was dominated by bricks; there were several verandas on the higher floor(the mansion has four floors); the cubical mansion and has many, many windows than Naruto could count. And the garden… it was very, very large grassy land graced by many different kinds of plants and flowers, arranged neatly as their species and types, with attractive shapes and colors. It looked similar to the castles from medieval times.

"The Uchihas… lives here? How many people are there?" Naruto asked unconsciously.

"With the maids, servants, cooks, butler, bodyguards, instructors, and staffs, I think it is currently accommodate around… eighty seven people are living inside, of course, including the two proud Uchiha members." Ren explained further with dull formal accent.

The blonde instantly twisted his head toward his personal bodyguard, a mix between surprise and disbelief had graced his face. "Only two people? Where are the others?" he asked curiously.

Enigmatic grey eyes gazed back at the blonde. "I'm afraid there are only two Uchihas left remain in this world, Naruto-san, the two heirs of the Uchiha family, Master Sasuke and his older brother, Master Itachi, their parents had died in a terrible accident years ago, but I don't know the details. The only one that is still related to the Uchiha family, however, is the Hatake family, the heir of Hatake family is Master Kakashi. I heard there are more Uchiha members in the past, and that this family was once a clan, called Uchiha clan, but unfortunately, from what I heard, an insane man had massacred almost all of the Uchiha members mercilessly, there was only one survivor, and he managed to restore the Uchiha family once again." He concluded deadpanned with indifferent expression of enigma, showing no emotion as he explained.

Naruto, however, had only listened to the first few lines of explanation, the rest was vague. But the only statement he remembered clearly was the fact that Sasuke was an orphan as he was. What is this? He felt some strange emotion suddenly flickered inside his chest, was it… sympathy? To Sasuke?

"Naruto-san, let us go inside, let me escort you to your room." Ren's calm voice pulled him back to awareness, and he nodded promptly. "Then please follow me."

Naruto did.

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_Name : Naruto Uzumaki_

_Age : 19_

_D.O.B : October 10, 1988_

_Sex : Male_

_Height : 5'6 _(1)

_Weight : 130_

_Occupation : Part-time at many workplaces_

_Hair Color : Golden Blond_

_Eye Color : Blue_

_Distinguishing Feature : Spinning sun tattoo on the back of the right shoulder._

_Parents/Guardian : Iruka Umino_

'_An orphan since the age of six, his mother, namely Kushina Uzumaki, died from cancer illness, with his birthfather unknown. He had lived on the street called 'Godchild' since his mother passed away, because he refused to be taken care in a local orphanage, thus he ran away. He lived on the streets for four years until he met his current guardian, Iruka Umino, who took him in the orphanage he own. After graduated from high school, he couldn't attend collage because of some financial difficulties; instead he works part-time at several places. He is known as a good natured person, and a loving brother to his unrelated siblings.'_

Onyx eyes traveled up and down the paper he was holding in his hand, written there was the data of his new slave, Naruto Uzumaki. He wanted to know more about his little slave, the background history of his education, his family, his life… _especially_ the reasons of why he sold himself as a slave, which intrigued the raven the most. Although he had hired a detective to search about him, Sasuke had yet to find further information of him.

_Mother… Kushina Uzumaki, died from cancer… birthfather unknown… does this mean he's an illegitimate child, or his father had died before his birth?_ Sasuke mused thoughtfully. But then something else caught his attention.

'_He had lived on the street called 'Godchild' since his mother passed away, because he refused to be taken care in a local orphanage, thus he ran away.'_

The younger Uchiha reread the sentence over and over again. To be blunt, he was quiet surprised that Naruto had once lived on the streets, frankly said, homeless. And it happened when he was still at a very young age of six, when a child was still very fragile and unknown to the most dangerous situations could happen outside of his parents' protection. And yet, Naruto _was_ different from other people, he seemed stronger than average teenagers of his age, both physically and mentally. The last part intrigued Sasuke more; the fact that Naruto refused to be taken into an orphanage—which most likely a lot safer place—and even had ran away. What exactly had happened?

While Sasuke swam in deep thoughts, soft knocks came from his office door.

Quickly, he slid the data back to its folder, and straightened his posture. "Come in." he said, and the knob slowly being pulled down.

As the door was fully opened, a tall silver-haired man, wearing a white dress shirt and grey trouser, and an eye patch covered his left eye slid his body between the gaps created by the door. With a charming smile, he waved at his stoic cousin. "Hey, you called?" he greeted casually, in a cheery tone.

Sasuke coughed briefly. "Yes, Kakashi, if you don't mind, could you please deliver this letter personally to Nara in his office?" he said as he pulled the top drawer of his office table, and drew out a white envelope and shoved it to Kakashi's outstretched hand.

Kakashi flipped the securely closed envelope in his hand, before he eyed Sasuke with amusement and curiosity. "Nara? Shikamaru Nara the _lazy_ detective you mean? Do you want to investigate something, or… someone?"

"Yes, and it's none of your business. So off you go." Sasuke blandly replied.

"Ouch, you're such a slave-driver, Sasuke. Don't you have any respect to your elder?" Kakashi wantonly asked, teasingly.

Sasuke snorted. "Of course I _respect_ you, and _love_ you, Kakashi dear, now off you go."

"Ah, as bossy as always." Kakashi remarked, and swirled his heels while he slipped the envelope into his coat's inner pocket. "Oh, and Sasuke?" he twisted his head half-way back.

"Yes?"

"About that boy… you didn't do anything severe to him, right?"

Sasuke raised a fine brow. "Of course not. Do you think an Uchiha treat their property badly? I don't think so, Kakashi. You still concerned with that? I told you, he's just a slave, there's nothing to worry about, I will take care of him as long as he stay obedient."

"Ah… okay, if you mean that, then my worry has abated. Just… can I see him sometimes?" he asked blandly, his only visible eye curved upward.

"Of course." Sasuke briefly replied, and with that, Kakashi proceeded to leave.

Once he closed the door behind him, Kakashi glanced to the door behind him, watching his younger cousin had started doing his work again. Even after Sasuke had assured him, Kakashi still felt restless, because he knew Sasuke can be very emotional and relentless sometimes… And it worried him. Not only to Sasuke, _but_ also to his new slave.

"I guess I have to pay a visit later after I give Nara some work…" he murmured and then waltzed away.

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The sun had dusked red in the West, slanted into a shape of a half-ball, illuminating reddish orange hallo.

The evening was about to come, but Naruto hadn't yet to do anything but stay in a big room Ren had accommodate him in. He wasn't allowed to go outside his room even a single step, the door wasn't locked, but Ren always guarding the entrance from outside obligingly. Sure, they provided him with sustenance, decent clothes, and everything he needed, and there was a bathroom in the room also, but Naruto wasn't comfy with all of this.

He felt like a prisoner.

Every time he asked Ren why, the auburn-haired bodyguard would say the same thing; "Until Master Sasuke returned home, I cannot allow you to roam around, Naruto-san. Please be patient." With his usual dull tone, and persuaded Naruto to wait inside again patiently.

While he sat on his bedside, having no other things to occupy his boredom, he began to wonder about his family. The money was still with him, surely, the debt collectors were still bothering them, and he still haven't say a word of farewell… Ah, of course he knew he and his family might never meet again, but at least he wanted to say goodbye for the last time. Because maybe they will never meet with each other again. And of course, to Sai and the other Godchild children too.

Naruto sighed deeply.

As his blue eyes scanned the room, he felt nothing but ironic. Living inside a castle-like mansion, with a very rich man took care of your every need, like princesses in the fairy tales he used to read for Yuki as bedtime stories. But the fact that he was here because he was a slave to that rich man, and his freedom was caged and bordered, living inside this luxurious mansion, made him felt like a bird in a beautiful cage, unhappy and empty. A mere child like him, an orphan who has nothing, and had experienced many bad to dangerous situations in his younger days when he still lived on the street, suddenly became a slave and forced to live inside this soundless, lifeless place. Though he had only stole several glances, the people he encountered on his way to his room had no passion inside their dull eyes, all of them seemed the same, void, bored, and obedient, almost resembled Ren (but livelier).

Naruto couldn't help but to wonder; how come people live inside such a dull place?

Then sudden knocks pulled him back to awareness.

"Naruto-san, Master Sasuke had returned, and requested your presence in the dining room, please prepare yourself." Said Ren from the other side of the door.

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed at the raven's name. But—_**prepare himself?**_ What's the big deal? Do rich people have to wear fancy costumes to attend dinners? Ah, fuck it. Naruto mused. He was just an ordinary boy, so he'll just do the things ordinary boys do; eat the foods in front of him like mad.

But of course, he bottled the idea.

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Wearing the clothing Ren had provided to him; Versace white silk shirt, and a pair of Marc Jacobs denim jeans. He stepped into the large dining room where Sasuke and another man he didn't recognized had been waiting for him. Naruto was surprised to see there was a very long dining table dominated the centre part of the room, it stretched from side to side, and there were at least fifteen wooden chairs on each side of the table, only two in the front and back. A neat brick fireplace behind the seat Sasuke was sitting on. The maids in white and black uniform stood in arranged line by the side of the room, and they bowed to him as he entered.

The Uchiha smirked smugly at his little slave, chin drown in between his entwined fingers. "Hello, Naruto. Good to see you're looking fine this evening… has the pain in your _arse_ healed?" he asked amusedly, enjoying how Naruto's stern expression morphed into an angered one.

"For your information, my backside has no longer hurt, _bastard_. No thanks to you." He spat sardonically, fervent blue eyes pierced holes into the onyx ones.

The undignified tone of Naruto's voice and disrespectful nickname he gave to the younger Uchiha had made the maids let out shocked gasps in unison, while the silver-haired man who sat at the other side of the table stared at the dauntless boy bemusedly. However, the said raven smirked wider in amusement, no anger or insulted expression whatsoever surfaced on his handsome feature--which had successfully enraged the blonde more.

"Ah… as deviant as ever, I see." He uttered. "Don't worry, I shall overlook it this time. Come and sit beside me." Sasuke leaned his hand to an empty chair beside his own.

A snort. "I can choose wherever I want to sit, thank you." Naruto replied deadpanned, then he sat on one of the chairs at the middle of the long dining table, far from where Sasuke sat.

"Fine then, suit yourself." Sasuke exclaimed briefly, with indifferent look. "Oh, and Naruto. Before we start, let me introduce you to my cousin, Kakashi Hatake."

The silver haired man who sat at the other side, stood and walked toward the blonde, leaning his hand. "Hello, I'm Kakashi Hatake, Sasuke's older cousin, nice to finally meet you in person." He exclaimed cheerfully, and winked his only visible eye.

_This is the person Ren was talking about?_ Naruto mused. _Doesn't look like he's a bastard like Sasuke…_ He thought mentally as they shook hands.

"Nice to meet you too, Hatake-san. My name's Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto greeted friendly.

"So I heard." Kakashi smiled. "I hope we get along splendidly."

"Err… yeah, I hope so too…" Naruto stuttered unsurely, _rich people __**are**__ freaks_, he added.

And they returned to sit on their seats.

They eat in silent. Too soundless that it made Naruto grew uncomfortable by the awkward silence, though the food was (_delicious, outstanding, magnificent, and insanely_) pretty good—and he had never eat so much food as he was now before—it still felt odd to eat in such a dense and humid air like this. Does Sasuke always eat like this? Silent, arranged, collected, dull…

Before he knew it, the empty plates had been picked by the maids, and Sasuke had stood and was just about to go. Naruto suddenly remembered something.

"Wait, Sasuke!" he shrieked purposely, as he stood up. Sasuke halted his movement, and turned to him.

"Yes?" he asked blandly.

"I… I need to talk to you about something…" Naruto mouthed truthfully.

"Oh." Sasuke muttered. "Then meet me at my study later if you want to talk privately." Then he just walked away like nothing had happened.

_Bastard._ Naruto mused indignantly. He had to ask Ren for directions… Without further delay, Naruto dashed out to find Ren, who had been waiting for him by the dining room entrance.

There was only one thing occupied his mind;

To meet with Iruka and his siblings.

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Iruka was nearly devastated.

His son—Naruto had yet to return home like he promised the day before, that's why he had called each of the blonde's workplace to ask about his whereabouts, his well-being, and what did he get? All of them said the same; they had no idea where the blonde was. It nearly killed him… the moment they said Naruto hadn't came to work since yesterday, as if Naruto had vanished to someplace he didn't know. His mind was restless, completely occupied by any possible negative occurrences could happen to the blonde.

Was he in trouble? Was Naruto okay? Did he eat right? What happened to him? Why didn't he come back? Why didn't he call Iruka and inform his well-being, where his current position was? Where-? Why-? What-? Who-? All the questions being repeated inside his brain, over and over again, drowning his frustrated face in his palms.

"Iruka-tousan?" called a soothing voice.

Iruka snapped back from his unsanitary thoughts, and brought his head to face the worried twins. "Chi… Yuu… wh-what is it?" he asked softly, attempting to give a smile, but it failed to cover his restless demeanor, and thus, the smile was shook and fake.

The twins noticed this, as did Kazuna and Ichiro behind them.

"Iruka-tousan, what's the matter? Where's Naru-nii?" Chirei asked, as he put his little hand on his foster father's knee.

The fake smile fell in a jiffy, before replaced by another faint one. "No… no, I'm alright, I'm fine… I'm just… just worried…" he assured weakly, the poor attempt was in vain.

"It's about Naruto-niichan right? Don't lie, otousan…" said the blond haired girl gently, as she approached her father.

Ah, and the smile once again fell, and no replacement came this time. The children knew; of course they knew, they weren't stupid, children are sensitive to people's feelings, especially his children, because they were all wonderful children. And Iruka broke. Tears welled in his chocolate-colored eyes, and droplets of the said salty water streamed down. As his trembling lips mouthed almost soundless murmurs, pouring all of his worries and bewilderments to the waiting ears of his lovable sons and daughters, they circled around him and put their tiny arms around their father, soothing him in the most wonderful way Iruka has ever felt.

_Naruto, Naruto, my son—Naruto… please, please be safe… Oh God, please protect him…_

No one knew if that wish was granted or not.

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"_Go home?_" Sasuke repeated the last sentence Naruto said.

Blond brows furrowed irritatedly at the pressured tone Sasuke used, but he nodded anyway, ignoring the fact that the older man had once again, successfully infuriated him.

Sasuke barely glanced up from the newspaper he was reading before, a cynical sneer split his face. "No." he stated briefly, continued reading, red flash from the faint glow of the lamp on his table reflected on the spectacle he wore.

Naruto would've exploded with anger and irritation if he hadn't prepared himself for the most outrageous words he might receive from the raven before he stepped into this book-filled room—willingly. But rejection wasn't something he _will_ accept easily, he _must_ win this argument, even if he had to beg.

"No? Why not? Why can't I?" He asked, gritting his teeth.

Sasuke flipped a page. "Well, Naruto. Firstly, because your contract hasn't been arranged and signed yet, which is the prove of my ownership over you. There's a chance you might try to escape once you're outside. That's why I'm keeping you here until then." He explained blandly, as he continued reading.

Naruto snapped.

"I swear I won't, Sasuke! I _**have**_ to go! I have to meet my guardian—and my siblings, I have to give them something, or they'll be in danger!!" He spat frantically, but the raven didn't even spare him a glance.

Naruto sighed deeply. "…_please_, Sasuke."

Ah that irritating smug smirk appeared again, and finally, Sasuke closed the newspaper and glanced to the, with flickers of amusement flashed within those onyx orbs—that sadist bastard. Sasuke gave him a signal to approach him, and with a sigh, Naruto obligingly did. As the blonde had come close, Sasuke abruptly pulled him down onto his lap, straddling his hips. Naruto yelped in surprise as his hips came in contact with Sasuke's lap.

"Does it still hurt?" He purred deeply, nibbling on the soft flesh of Naruto's collarbone.

"No—Yes, what the hell are you-ngghh!" Sasuke bit down rather harshly.

Sasuke smirked as he looked down to his work, a bright red mark was displayed on the tan skin. "If you want me to grant you permission… then you have to humor me tonight."

"You… bastard! Aahh!" Naruto mewed as Sasuke sucked hard on a sensitive flesh.

Naruto clawed on Sasuke's shoulders as the said man repositioned him in a position that his gradually hardening shaft was over Sasuke's crotch, legs sprawled around Sasuke's chair. Detached from the flesh, Sasuke discreetly drew something from his pocket, and put it into his mouth, unknown to the blonde. Then he kissed Naruto deeply, a hand held his jaw, the other on Naruto's waist. Before Naruto could react, Sasuke darted his tongue inside his cavern, and shoved the thing down Naruto's throat. It was too late for Naruto when he realized he had swallowed something foreign.

Suddenly, the blonde felt his body heated up gradually, and some foreign, but wonderful sensation washed both of his mind and body, blurring his judgment. He moaned rather loudly as Sasuke pulled his Versace shirt over his head, purring and mewling at every light touches. Sasuke drank greedily and hungrily at the exposed chest and torso, the beautiful milky tan skin with two tiny dusky pink tits adorned the slightly muscular, yet flawless chest. Promptly said, Sasuke lapped on one of the pink tits, sucking and wetting it with his saliva, running his pink tongue teasingly, then lightly biting at it until it became fully erect, hard, and bright red.

"Aahhh…. Aaahhh… Sasu-ke… you bastard… what did you do… haahh… to me…?"

Naruto thrust his hips demandingly on Sasuke's clothed crotch, rolling and grinding their hips together, and the two groaned in pleasure as it created delicious frictions. It was odd—his body seemed to move on its own, while his mind was blurry and he couldn't think right, was it something Sasuke had made him swallowed? After he had made the two perky nipples both wet and red and swollen from his abuse, Sasuke withdrew to strip his own shirt, meeting difficulties as Naruto continued grinding on his own aching need.

"Some low-dose aphrodisiac… Hmmh… Gods, Naruto…"

Blue eyes widened at the statement. "You… you drugged me!?" he shouted in disbelief.

Sasuke smirked, "Just something to kink things up."

Naruto's anger eased as Sasuke bucked his hips up to meet his demanding grinds, mewling loudly and clutching on Sasuke's shoulders even tighter. "Sasuke!" he shouted demandingly, pleadingly, as he was lost in forbidden desires and needs and lust. His mind had blurred completely, Naruto only knew and plead of his body fulfillment, once again, to fell into the deep abyss of pleasure he had experienced before. Sasuke was more than happy to obligate, he quickly bent Naruto roughly onto the wooden desk, pinning his wrists over his head with his face facing the hard surface.

_Beautiful,_ Sasuke mused as he stilled to gaze at his beautiful slave, his body was bright pink from their heated actions, erratic breaths escaped those luscious pink lips, as well as the little demanding whimpers, urging Sasuke to touch him. But Sasuke was sure that although those pretty azure eyes was thickly clouded by lust, flickers of rejection and rebellion still lingered inside those ocean depths, filled with heated passion Sasuke had never saw in other people's eyes before.

He wanted to see them.

He wanted to see those beautiful depths as he touched the blonde, as he impaled into him, pounding into him, found release in him. He wanted to see the blonde's face as it twisted and twitched in pleasure, allowing Sasuke to know that he was able to pleasure him, satisfied his needs, filled him, that only he could make Naruto felt that way. Only _**him**_. If he sounded very possessive right now, then he blamed the Uchiha blood because every Uchiha was born with that birth inheritance. Yes, Naruto was his. Only his.

And thus, Sasuke flipped the blonde onto his back, and he saw those azure eyes he liked so much narrowed and teared slightly, filled with the said passion he longed to see. Hurriedly, Sasuke unbuttoned Naruto's jeans, and quickly pulled it down with his boxer, exposing every part of Naruto's beautiful body perfectly. Pink pole, bobbing stiff and swollen and leaked heavily, grew more excited as the friction of the rough cloth rubbed at it. Naruto spilt groans and moans as the cold air brushed his hot shaft, hot erratic breaths escaped his dusky rose lips. Sasuke coated his fingers with lube, and shoved the first finger inside Naruto's puckered petals, and leaned in to kiss Naruto passionately again, muffling every sound Naruto elicited. Then the second finger impaled Naruto's anus, slowly stretching and widening the anal path in scissor-like motion. Naruto whimpered and mewed into the kiss.

Sasuke pulled away, the same time, applied the third finger, thrusting in and out, the blonde's hips bucked and moved in the same pace, mewling and clutching on the scattered papers he could reach beneath him. Sasuke licked his lips wantonly, impatiently, as he felt his own pole had grew more and more harder and aroused, he needed to be sheathed inside this hot, tight, fuckable body. Pulled his digits completely, he undid his own pants, sliding them down with the boxer, and kicked them elsewhere, releasing his own angry and heavy leaking with pre-cum shaft. He quickly lubed it, hissed and moaned at the sensation. Positioning Naruto's ass, he roughly thrust into the stretched ring of muscles, groaning as the tight, hot layers of muscle clenching in him.

Naruto balled his fist as he spilt pained tears, squeezing his eyes shut, and cried hoarsely. Sasuke stilled a moment to let him adjust, before he start to thrust in and out of Naruto in an animalistic pace, eager to reach his fulfillment and Naruto's.

"Aaahhhnn! Aaah! Sasu-! Fuck!" Naruto choked out, as pleasure clouded his mind.

Sasuke bit his lower lip as he grabbed Naruto's waist and slammed into him harder and deeper, spreading Naruto's legs wider and wrapped it around his waist to give him more access to impaled Naruto deeper, his balls twitched and slapped against the firm ass as he banged into to the hilt. Naruto suddenly mewled loudly as Sasuke's penis brushed the bundle of nerves. Finally found Naruto's special spot, Sasuke pointed at that spot over and over again as he fucked Naruto hard, able to hit that spot in every thrust. Naruto could only moaned and groaned and mewled and writhed in pleasure, clawing on Sasuke's back as the said raven continued his hard, powerful thrusts, damp dark bangs stick and unstick to his face as Sasuke moved wildly, Naruto also swayed with their movement. As Sasuke was close to his release, his penis had grown harder and swollen inside of Naruto, while the blonde's had also became angry pink and stiff. Sasuke groaned and grasped Naruto's wet pole, and began to stroke it, sharp jolts of pleasure shot up Naruto's spine, numbing him.

"Aahhh… ahhh… Sasuke, fuck! Aahhn…. Sasuke! I'm-" white dots suddenly appeared before Naruto's eyelids, as he cried loudly and hoarsely, spraying white, sticky substance into Sasuke's waiting hand. And energy suddenly flew away from him, and his penis deflated gradually, as the last remaining batch of seeds left him.

The raven saw Naruto's expression relaxed and satisfied, with a few more thrusts, and Sasuke lost it. With a loud cry of "Naruto," he released his hot seeds within the younger man beneath him, back arched like a bow, and face twisted in pleasure as he filled Naruto, before he collapsed on the younger one.

"That was… amazing." Naruto heard Sasuke murmured as he kissed the blonde's sweaty temples, their bare bodies were hot and bright red from the mind-blowing sex.

Sasuke pulled away to gaze at his little lover, looking most stunning with hazy, teary eyes, short and erratic breaths escaped his throat. Swollen dusky rose lips parted in the most alluring manner, new and old kiss marks covered his neck and collarbone, abused nipples were hard, red and swollen and wet. Naruto's lower abdomen and private part were thickly coated with their mixed cum, semen dripped down to the desk and floor from the pink anus as Sasuke slid out of him, hearing whimpers as he did so.

Naruto was exhausted, it seemed all of his energy had flew away from him, leaving him with limp limbs and immobile nerves. His azure eyes were narrowed and hazy, vision blurred. Naruto felt a hand gently caressed his scarred cheek, and another pair of lip brushed his lightly. With the remaining energy, he leaned his hand and tugged at Sasuke's arm.

"Sa… suke… you've… pro… missed…" he muttered almost incoherently.

Sasuke smiled. "Of course, you can go tomorrow." He said as he flung away a damp golden strand from the blonde's face.

Naruto gave a weak grin, before drifted asleep.

Gathered the blonde in his arms, Sasuke carried Naruto in bridal style, and brought them both to Sasuke's private room. Sasuke pulled the sheets and slid Naruto underneath it, he drew a washcloth from the drawer beside the bed and cleaned the blonde's body. After he'd done, he pulled the sheets to cover Naruto's bare body, and went to the bathroom to clean himself and get dressed.

After moment, Sasuke came out all cleaned and neatly dressed. He picked his cellphone from the table, and dial-up the numbers. Sasuke waited until the person in across the line picked his call.

"Hello? Kakashi? Sorry to bother you so late…" Sasuke greeted.

After Sasuke had made Kakashi agreed to do some things for him, he hung-up the call. Feeling tired, Sasuke decided to take a rest too, he had an early morning tomorrow. He slid into the sheets, then laid his body under it, glancing at the sleeping blond beside him. The little slave slept peacefully, eyes shut faintly, steady breaths escaped his tiny nose. He looked so vulnerable now, childish and weak, but when he fully awaked, it was the complete opposite.

_Strong, rebellious, passionate…_

Ghostly fingers traced the scars adorned the slightly puffy cheek.

Closing his eyes, he saw the weak grin Naruto gave him before he dozed off.

If only Naruto always smiled like that to him…

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The next morning, Naruto woke up with the same sharp pain torturing his backside—_again_.

Therefore, Sasuke restricted him from going anywhere that day, but of course, Naruto stubbornly refused Sasuke's command to stay in the bed and rest—to fell to the carpeted floor with shaky legs. After throwing much argument, Naruto finally gave up half-heartedly. Instead, Sasuke offered his help to deliver the thing Naruto wanted to give his family, though hesitant, Naruto accepted the offer, because this is an emergency, he'd rather count on Sasuke to do the job, for once, he put personal feelings aside.

"Here." Sasuke bluntly said, as he shoved the black briefcase to Kakashi.

The said older man accepted, and examined it curiously. "It's the money, right? What should I do with it?"

"Open a bank account, safe the money there, in the name of Naruto Uzumaki." Sasuke cast him a look. "Then, bring back an empty check."

"Hmm… Okay, why can't he go himself? It'll be much easier."

Sasuke sipped his unsweetened Earl Grey tea. "He can't, his backside is hurting right now." He explained blandly, lips twitched upward.

"Sasuke… you didn't!"

"Well, I did." He sipped his tea again. "If I didn't he might do foolish things, seeing how… _reckless_ he could be. And I don't want him to step out of this place until he's mine completely."

The older man sighed deeply. "You're such a cruel bastard."

The said man cast down his teacup delicately, and smiled sweetly to his cousin.

"Why, thank you."

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(1) have you noticed that I've been changing this part a lot lately? It's 'coz in the country I live, we use 'centimeter' not 'feet', so I really don't know how it works... I tried to match it with international regulations, but still I couldn't imagine Naruto's height... and thanks for the reviewers who had complained this to me, though I kinda resent the word 'crazy' for opinion...

To be continued!

**A/N** : Yes, this chapter is long, ne? I told you; I have a fetish of detailing things. For those who couldn't enjoy the smuts in the sixth chapter because of the inner struggle issues, I hope you enjoy the smuts in this chapter instead. My… my writing-addiction illness relapsed again! I couldn't stop my fingers from keep typing and typing until it sore. TAT Ah, yes… too much writing also made me suffer from slight insomnia, 'coz I work in the middle of the night. I even began to wonder 'where the hell is the usual laziness go?'. I've posted a new story titled **'Platinum Snowflake'**, yep, SasuNaru. The story is a bit… unique, and different I guess, contains Drama/Romance/Angst. My dear readers, could you check it out, please? And R&R please! My darling reviewers whose reviews or PMs has yet to be replied, please wait a little, because I need to work on my addictive issues. TT-TT

I believe reviews are the essential remedy for insomnia, addiction issues, and sore fingers. So, could you be so kind (especially if you have this fic in your fave or alert list), and heal my little illness? ;3

Ja, Mata Ne!


	9. Chapter 9 : Guilt

**Disclaimer :** Kishimoto-sensei had prisoned me for a whole week inside his closet from trying to add hot Yaoi-ness in the next chapter of Naruto manga, that's why he safely published it without the hotness of YAOI! DAMNIT!

**A/N :** Do I updated fast enough? The reasons of why I updated so fast are: 1. You're all so kind and sent me a lot of reviews, which literarily made me jumped with joy; 2. Sadly, my writing-addiction illness has yet to fade away, and I'm still writing like a madman on the loose; 3. I wanted to focus on this story right now, because I think this is gonna be a pretty long one. Because Naruto had to rest from the pain in his backside, so he stayed in bed for around… two days, so this chapter began in the third day since he arrived in the Uchiha main house, 'kay?

Okay, reply for anonymous reviews :

**CloudyEros :** Dear, it's rare to see you reviewed anonymously… but I'm happy you did! Hope you'll enjoy this chapter!

**Ddd :** Hehehe… Of course! Read and you'll see.

**Angel of friendship :** Thank you! Yeah, he is a bastard, isn't he? And Happy New Year to you too!

**Angel :** Did I updated fast enough for you, dear?

**Cho-chan :** I'm very sorry, dear. The reason is because I don't know how international height measure works, in my country, we use 'centimeter', that's why…

**I'm not anonymous :** Why, thank you, dear! I'm glad you liked it, happy reading!

Hope you enjoy this chapter! And sorry about the grammatical errors, with my mail account going spazz, I can't contact my beta and send my story to her, nor I can receive the edited ones.

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**Chapter 9 : Guilt**

The night before, Naruto once again awaked in the middle of the night.

Once again, to feel disgusted and ashamed of himself, for allowing the raven his body, to be used as a media to relief Sasuke's sick sexual need. How can _he_, a proud man, clung _pathetically_ to another man, desperate for him to _fuck_ the daylight out of him? Such an insane idea. _Weak_.

Naruto suddenly felt the need to vomit again as his insides twisted wildly, feeling the merciless nausea spinning fast and painfully inside his poor sack, the result of his rather unsanitary thoughts, negative emotions mixed together. Shame, was the one of the unpleasant emotions dominating Naruto's mind as he, once again, found himself clutching on the hard, off-white ceramic surface with both hands, pouring the crushed sustenance from the dinner he ate before, into the white, spotless medium before him, emptying his cavity. Breathing erratically, he lifted one of his hands to pull the handle and flushed the disgusting fluid away.

With his last remaining energy, Naruto lifted his body up, tottered a bit as he tried to stood, then limped his way to the nearby sink counter. The blonde opened the tap, and the clean water poured down, streaking his palms with crystal clear fluid, and he slammed his water-filled palms onto his face, drowning his face in his palms, relaxing as the cold, yet comforting substance trailing down his skin.

'_It felt good, didn't it?'_

Naruto stiffened.

The blonde promptly glanced at the entrance door, but it still closed, and locked. Strange, Naruto mused. But decided to shrug it off, he closed the tap, and leaned his hand to grab the washcloth.

'_How he touches your skin… kissing you with those luscious, sinful lips… it felt good, didn't it?'_

The outstretched hand tensed slightly, and Naruto suddenly realized where the voice came from.

"Who're you?" He whispered, twisting his head to all over the room.

The voices laughed evilly. _'How foolish of you… don't you recognized your __**own**__ self? Must be too drown in your new occupation, aren't you, little slut?'_

Naruto frowned deeply. "I am **not** a slut."

'_Oh, really?'_ the voice mocked pityingly. _'Offering your body more than once to the same guy for money, isn't called a slut? Then what are you? A __**whore**__?'_

"I am not a whore either!" Naruto snarled sardonically.

The voice suddenly let out a vicious, maniacal laughter_. 'Neither a whore nor a slut? What a great joke!! You, my dear foolish self, is a dirty, filthy whore, you can't deny the obvious! Remember when you writhed from his touch? Moaned as he kissed you? Arching your back as he fucked you!? Do I have to tell you more, little slut!?'_

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!!" chanted Naruto over and over again, as he clutched his ears and shut his eyes.

The voice chuckled deeply. _'Can't deny it, do you? I know you knew you are a whore… I wonder what will Iruka say if he knew his precious, sweet, innocent son no longer have innocence?, or that he had raised a dirty slut like you?'_

Naruto's eyes widened.

_Iruka._

Blue eyes snapped wide as Naruto abruptly brought his body to sit, a restrained yelp of pain ripped its way up through his throat as a sharp pain shot up his spine.

Naruto was breathing heavily, his night attire was streaked, pores overflowed by sweat, and the said salty water trickled down his temples and forehead, dripping to his chin. The blonde promptly looked around to his surrounding, and found himself in his bedroom, not the bathroom, nor Sasuke's room. And there are no mocking voices inside his head, or from other people, nothing.

_It was just a dream._

Naruto drowned his face in his palms. A dream—it was just another awful nightmare, the voices wasn't real, it wasn't real, but—it _felt_ so real. The nausea, the voices, the mockery, the insane laughter, and… Iruka.

Naruto's ocean eyes widened in horror.

What if Iruka knew? If he found out that Naruto—what Naruto had done, what will he say, how will he react? What will he do if he knew that Naruto—his son, that he had raised a… a…

'_Slut.'_

It was the first time of his life, Naruto felt such fear… of Iruka's rejection.

----------

When Sasuke visited him early in the morning, the third morning Naruto woke up in the bedroom of this mansion, with a piece of paper laid sprawl on his palm, Naruto's eyes fixed at the dark haired man bewilderedly.

"What's this?" He asked, glancing at the paper.

"A blank check." Came a bored reply from the raven.

Naruto wrinkled his nose in annoyance at the unpleasant tone, but his thoughts promptly replaced by a question; _why did Sasuke give him a blank check?_ Azure eyes examined the small piece of paper thoroughly, before hesitantly accepted it in his hand, glancing at Sasuke with hints of befuddlement glimmering in those deep depths. Sasuke, who noticed the confusion, allowed a conceit smirk grace his face, before he sat on the bedside and fetched the check quietly from Naruto's digits. Aware that the raven was being near him, Naruto tensed and moved to side, tugging at the blanket, wincing a bit as the dull pain washed his insides again, though it didn't hurt much like yesterday.

Sasuke furrowed his well-trimmed brows by the stubborn signs of alertness, but decided it would be best to ignore it, and continued.

"You've gotten better, right? I had Kakashi open a bank account for you and save your money there, so if you want to give it to your family… let's just say it would be easier to use the check." He explained patiently, watching as Naruto's eyes grew wide with.

"What!? You did that without _my_ permission?" Naruto shrieked in disbelief. The words, actually, were being said without Naruto knew what it was, and realized it by the time it was already been said. When the anger-filled tone escaped his mouth, it was too late.

"Naruto, wait—"

"No!" Naruto snarled viciously. "I can't believe you did that after you'd done those things to me!" …no, it wasn't what he wanted to say. Naruto didn't mean to sound so angry, it made no sense if he angry when Sasuke was trying to explain this…

_The voices laughed evilly._ _'How foolish of you… don't you recognized your __**own**__ self? Must be too drown in your new occupation, aren't you, little slut?'_

Azure eyes widened in shock. What—why did the memories of the nightmare he had before suddenly appeared inside his head?

Sasuke glared offendedly at the blonde. "Naruto, what are you saying!? Listen to me, I was just trying to help-"

"No, _**you**_ listen!!" Naruto glared back, gasping mentally as the words uncontrollably escaped his mouth, his lips moved on its own. This was wrong, this was wrong! He didn't mean it, he really didn't mean to shout at Sasuke, why couldn't he control his own mouth!?

'_Oh, really?'_ _the voice mocked pityingly._ _'Offering your body more than once to the same guy for money, isn't called a slut? Then what are you? A __**whore**__?'_

Anger. Anger rose up acceleratingly inside Naruto's chest, triggered by the malicious voices of his dream, as it crossed his mind over and over again. The fears, the anxiety, worry, sadness, anguish… the foul emotions he felt that day returned back. And thus, Naruto couldn't control his anger, his body, his words, as it seemed to move on its own, while the 'true' Naruto was being left deep within him, unable to do anything, let alone stop it.

"I-" _…no, no, no! Don't say it!!_ Naruto screamed, he knew Sasuke was at fault, but it was Naruto who was willing to be a slave, a servant, a toy, but Sasuke had never intended to hurt him—he never meant to hurt him! He was just— "-_don't need_-"

_The voice suddenly let out a vicious, maniacal laughter. 'Neither a whore nor a slut? What a great joke!! You, my dear foolish self, is a dirty, filthy whore, you can't deny the obvious! Remember when you writhed from his touch? Moaned as he kissed you? Arching your back as he fucked you!? Do I have to tell you more, little slut!?'_

Naruto hated Sasuke, very much. Sasuke was an arrogant, harsh, stuck-up man, proud, and always belittled Naruto, and people at the blonde's level, like an arrogant king he had to get whatever he want, whenever he want, and he even had hurt Naruto for his own selfish needs. Naruto always hated people like that, who didn't seem to care about other people, always. But Sasuke didn't mean to hurt Naruto, he tried to make things easy for the blonde, always tried to make him feel good, providing him with many things he might needed, though Naruto was just a mere _slave_, though he mocked him, though he rejected him. So why-

"-your help." …why did he say those hurtful words?

"This is the most efficient way, Usuratonkachi." Sasuke snarled impatiently, onyx eyes flashed dangerously, erratic breaths escaped his mouth as pale face reddened in anger. Naruto could see clearly, the hurt in those onyx eyes, as Sasuke tried to remain calm, hiding his emotions.

"And _I_ have no right? Think again, Naruto, although the money is yours, you have given me the permission to hand it to your _so-called_ family, and I offer you the easiest way to move the money, rather than you, bring a _fucking_ bag full of money, outside, where some rascals might try to steal it from you!!" Sasuke spat promptly, voice thick with anger and shook slightly.

"-but if you don't need my help like you had _politely_ told me, then _fine_!!!" He shouted furiously as he slammed the blank check down to the nightstand, and stood abruptly.

"I don't have a _fucking_ care what you want to do with it, dump it, burn it, do whatever you want!!" He spared Naruto one last glare, before he rushed out, slamming the door open harshly as he left the room.

In his way, Sasuke bumped onto Kakashi near the entrance, but he ignored the older man then, as he was too wrapped up in fury, and proceeded to walk away in a rush. The Hatake heir, who was just about to knock the door, seemed puzzled by the harsh treatment, and how Sasuke's expression was misted with anger.

"What happened?" The silver haired man questioned, raising his platinum brows as he saw the blonde's stern face.

Naruto said nothing.

-------------

Trees, roads, buildings, people, all seemed to blur like a streaked painting, speeding up ever so fast, leaving the previous sceneries in a blink of an eye of two blank blue eyes, which was transfixed at the world beyond the car's windowpane.

The first abnormal thing Kakashi--who sat beside the blonde at the backseat--noticed, was the extreme silent the youngest boy offered ever since he stepped into the extravagant car, yet, with another look of depression displayed on his face, showing no other emotion than depression and stress. Even Kuon Ren, who was driving the car, lost some of his concentration, as he too, noticed the awkward silence emitted from the blonde and Kakashi, and had begun stealing enigmatic glances from the small mirror in front of him, though his face showed no hint of interest as always.

Platinum brows came together as the blonde let out a heavy sigh, eyes still locked on the scenery of the neighborhood, face downcast. Sighing heavily, Kakashi couldn't help but to break the heavy air stuffing the tiny space of the car.

"Okay, Naruto. If you feel guilty for making Sasuke angry, why don't you just _apologize_?" the silver haired man muttered, averting his eyes as Naruto shifted his gaze to him with incredulous look.

"Were you eavesdropping?" the blonde asked suspiciously, nervous laughter from the older man as his answer.

"Bad habit dies hard, you see." He excused pathetically, seemed shameless of his own revelation. "I just wanted to visit you because Sasuke said you were sick, but I didn't dare to enter when I heard you shouting… honestly, Naruto, what was going on? Did Sasuke do something impertinent to you?" he asked.

Naruto tensed his body, stiffened at the question. No, no, _no_. It wasn't Sasuke's fault, he didn't do anything, Naruto was the one who was angered unreasonably, Sasuke was just—just _trying_ to help. Something clenched in Naruto's chest in a vice-like grip as he remembered how Sasuke looked before he rushed out of the room—_hurt and angry_. Naruto shook his head slightly as the answer, words seemed to stuck in the midst of his throat.

Kakashi sighed softly as he stared at the blonde. "Naruto… I know Sasuke can be so harsh, random, and a bit _heartless_… but _trust_ me, he might act like a total jerk, but he didn't have any bad intention, he was just trying to help you." Kakashi reasoned quietly.

"_I know,"_ Naruto murmured. "I know he was just trying to help—to make things better and easier for me… but I've been an _emotional_ jerk, I don't know why, but I couldn't control it, and… and I ended up…" _…hurting him_. He added bitterly, the vice grip tightened its deathly grasp inside Naruto's chest at the thought.

Naruto was a sweet child; although he hated Sasuke, he never intended to hurt the raven in any way possible… even though Sasuke had, in fact, _forced_ him twice before, ripped his heart, his mind, hurting him psychologically, making him feel disgusted and hated himself, but it _wasn't_ entirely his fault. Naruto was willing to be a slave, quite bluntly, to be _used_ as a servant, even as a _sex toy_… And Sasuke had been kind enough not to force him abruptly and relentlessly, he didn't make Naruto do a servant's chores, and he even tried to _help_ him to keep his money safe and mobile… Do those tiny hints of kindness what made Naruto felt guilty?

Kakashi cast the thoughtful boy a look of concern. "I don't know what exactly was going on there, but I think I've never saw Sasuke got angry like that for years… I don't know, Naruto, but I really suggest you to apologize."

Naruto's eyes widened slightly as he gazed at the older man in realization, of course—he should apologize to Sasuke, then maybe… maybe the pain he felt—the guilt will fade away once he'd done that. But he knew it was something that easier said than done, it would be difficult to apologize, to explain why _in the hell_ he suddenly got angry over such a ridiculous thing?

"Master Kakashi, Naruto-san, we have entered the neighborhood now." Warned the auburn haired bodyguard, as he drove the black Benz to turn right, entering a street called Linseed, where the orphanage—Iruka's house in.

"Ah… we're about to arrive at your house, I wonder how your guardian look like? I guess he's a wonderful father, ne? Seeing how you seem so eager to meet him." Kakashi muttered, smiling.

The blonde's face suddenly lit up by the thought of meeting his guardian again. "Yeah, he's a friendly guy, a little oversensitive, though. But you'll definitely like him, I'm sure!" Naruto exclaimed with a wide grin, and Kakashi's smile widened.

"I look forward to it." He uttered merrily, curious upon seeing the blonde's lively expression. His guardian must be a very precious person for Naruto, after all, the mere mention of his foster father was able to drive away the dark clouds from the blonde's face, Kakashi had become a little excited by the new found fact.

"Ah." Naruto murmured; blue eyes suddenly downcast.

"What is wrong, Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"Nothing, it's just—"

"Master Kakashi, Naruto-san, we've arrived." Ren said, as he stepped on the brake, causing the car to stop in front of a rather small house—Iruka's house. The auburn haired man promptly left the car, walked around, and carefully opened the car door to let Kakashi and Naruto step out.

"Well, we've arrived, shall we?" the silver haired man said.

Naruto tugged at Kakashi's dress shirt's sleeve, detaining him. "Wait!" He exclaimed, and Kakashi turned half-way to him, his only visible eye stared at the blonde bewilderedly.

The blonde bit his lower lip. "I… I need your help."

-----------

It had been three days since Naruto had gone missing.

Poor Iruka had searched for the blonde, all over the place; his workplaces, the playground, the park, the city square, uptown, downtown—even in the Godchild street. The brunette had asked Konohamaru, who often played with the blonde and the children, but the boy confessed he hadn't seen Naruto since four days ago, when he'd helped the blonde to find Sai… When Iruka asked Sai's whereabouts, thinking that maybe the dark haired teen knew to where Naruto had gone to, but Konohamaru truthfully told him that Sai had yet to come back, and that was it. He absolutely had no idea, nor a clue where the blonde had gone off to, and he hadn't been able to sleep peacefully since then, his brown eyes had developed heavy bags framed around its balls, and his body was tired.

Iruka was desperate.

The debt collectors came again yesterday, warning him to empty the house, and leave the house next week, but the brunette didn't have a _fucking_ care for them right now, his only concern now, was Naruto, _his __**son**_, nothing more important than his safety—all of his children's well-being, _nothing_.

The thoughts to call the police and ask for their assistance to search for his missing son had crossed his mind, and he was just about to press the numbers, when—

_Ting tong._

The door bell rang.

Sighing tiredly, Iruka placed the phone handle back, and urged his body to move toward the front door. Who could've visit in such an early morning? He had drove the children to the school, and he had to open the store too—albeit it, he already late and was extremely tired, so he maybe he'll take the day off.

Twisting the door knob and slowly opened the wooden leaf, Iruka murmured a "Yes?" with a hand shaded his eyes, so he could not see the face of the person who was standing in front of his door.

"Iruka!" Came a gentle voice thick with excitement.

Iruka stilled.

_W-was that voice is…?_ Slowly, ever so slowly, the brunette moved his palm aside and brought his head up, and air seemed to lose its way out.

_It was_, he mused. _It was, it was! It was him…_ he chanted over and over again, not believing his own eyes.

"Iruka? Are you alright? I'm home, Iruka!" The blonde teen in front of him muttered merrily, a cheerful grin split his face, and blue yes slanted to thin lines. Yes, that unruly-natured golden hair, those mesmerizing azure eyes, that playful, yet gentle voice, those thin scars adorning his cheeks… it was _him_—his son, Naruto, in front of him, safe, _for_ _real_.

"Naruto!!" the brunette cried blissfully, and he suddenly embraced the shorter boy, tears of relief welled up in his closed lids, as firm arms wrapped around Naruto's small body tightly, unaware that his action had troubled the younger boy's respiration system.

"Naruto, Naruto! You're alright, thank God! I'm so glad…" Iruka murmured repeatedly, a droplet of tear rolled down his cheek.

"I-Iruka… let g-go… I can't… breathe…!" Naruto managed to utter, desperately trying to push his guardian off, and suck the wonderful oxygen down his lung once again.

"Oh!" Iruka exclaimed, realizing he had squeezed the blonde dry. "Sorry, sorry!" he laughed softly as he pulled away, wiping away the tears from his tired eyes, but much more energized and happy now, seeing Naruto was safe and sound.

The brunette waited for a short moment as Naruto swallowed as much air as he needed, a hand rested on Naruto's shoulder blade. "Naruto, where were you? I was worried; I'd searched for you all over, but I couldn't find you. Why didn't you call me?" Iruka asked gently, with a look of worry spreaded on his face.

Naruto stiffened—much to Iruka's confusion. "I…" he mumbled, gulping slightly, and averted his eyes. "I… I was…"

"He was working at my place," Suddenly, another deep voice interrupted their conversation, causing the two men to swiftly turn their heads toward the smiling silver haired man behind, who had been watching the hearty family reunion with much amusement.

"Oh, I'm very sorry, how rude of me, I haven't introduce myself, aren't I? I am Kakashi Hatake, nice to meet you, Iruka-san." Kakashi stepped forward with an outstretched hand leaned toward the brunette, still smiling merrily.

It took a few seconds for the brunette to realize the situation, before ten shades of red washed his face, realizing that he had cried in front of a stranger—he was too coped up with emotions, he didn't notice the older man's presence. "_O-oh_! I should be the one to apologize! I showed such an embarrassing sight—I'm very sorry, Hatake-san, nice to meet you too…" Iruka promptly accepted the waiting hand, before adding, "…wait, you already knew my name?" he asked in slight curiosity.

Kakashi chuckled. "Yes, Iruka Umino-san, I've heard a lot about you from Naruto … and please don't apologize, I think you look rather… _adorable_ when you smile so happily like that." He uttered bluntly, staring bemusedly as Iruka's face darkened into a deep color of red, resembling a well-ripe tomato.

Naruto scowled as he nudged Kakashi rather harshly, and whispered, "Stop teasing him." And Kakashi replied with a playful wink.

"Uh… t-thank you, Hatake-san, would you like a cup of tea? We could talk inside more comfortably rather than outside—where people can see us, and we're standing in front of my door…" Iruka said as he smiled.

Kakashi's only visible eye curved upward. "Sure, I would love to."

------------

A bluish white strand flowed randomly in the air behind him, as the man twisted his head feverishly to his surroundings, gritted his sharp teeth in annoyance as he failed to find the man he was looking for there. He kicked an empty can of soda in front of him abruptly, causing it to smack against the tainted brick wall, but it still couldn't abate his irritation.

"Easy, roughneck." Came a bland, yet deep voice from behind him.

The said man, flipped his body around, and scowled at the coming man, who approached him into the abandoned building. "_Fuck,_ Kimimaro! Where the hell were _you_!? I've been looking all over for you!!" he shouted furiously, glaring fervently at the calmer one.

Kimimaro tilted his head to side, allowing the long platinum strand to sway with his movement, contrasting with the black leather suit he wore. "I've been _busy_, Suigetsu, the cops caught some of my men red-handed in a store, and they got locked up in the cell. Those _goons_ are giving me headaches." He said as he pressed two digits to massage his temples.

Suigetsu huffed mockingly, "Hmph, it happened 'coz you couldn't handle them right, Kimimaro! You should've _spanked_ them once in a while."

Kimimaro raised a fine platinum brow. "I'm afraid I am not a brute like you, Suigetsu. Is that all you wanted to say?"

"Nope." Suigetsu replied shortly. "I've heard some disturbing rumors from my dogs recently, so I visited the South area to check the truth… and it turned out to be true."

The beautiful man furrowed his eyebrows curiously. "What… rumors?" he asked.

Suigetsu eyes gazed fervently to Kimimaro's. "He was last spotted in our recent chase of the sly snake, Orochimaru, was it? But as soon as he gave the signal to beat up the snake into a bloody pulp, he left the scene immediately, and hadn't been seen since then. Even his subordinates were in frenzy from his absent…"

The platinum haired man's eyes widened. "Suigetsu… you mean…?" he stuttered in disbelief, so uncommon for a calm man of his class.

"Yeah." Suigetsu gave him an ironic smile. "Sai is missing."

------------

"_Work?_" Iruka repeated the word surprisedly.

Kakashi nodded briefly, smiling. "Yes, that is correct, Iruka-san. Naruto had been working in our place for the past three days, I'm very sorry that I didn't ask for your permission as his guardian in the first place, but the boy insisted that it is an emergency, so…" he trailed off, as he turned to Naruto with meaningful looks, the blonde promptly noticed it.

"Y-yeah, Iruka… sorry I didn't tell you earlier, but because we need money as soon as possible, so… so I decided to take the risk and… Kaka—Mr. Hatake agreed to employ me." Naruto uttered, averting his eyes as he did so.

"_Oh_…" Iruka slumped back to his seat. "Oh, i-it's okay for me, Naruto, as long as you fill me what is going on, it's completely fine… but why did you have to lie to me?" Iruka muttered, a hint of disappointment in the tone he used.

"I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry I lied to you, but I thought you will be worried, and forbid me, so… _so I had to lie_." Naruto desperately said, shutting his eyes so Iruka couldn't see the double meaning the sentence hid, the true meaning beyond those words…

Iruka's eyes softened at the explanation, he smiled at the blonde as he patted his head gently. "It's okay, Naruto… I know you did that for us, don't worry, I forgive you. Just—just don't lie to me again, okay? Families don't lie to each other, right?" he said soothingly.

Naruto smiled weakly at his father, clenching in his fists under the tablecloth, as a sharp pain suddenly stung inside his chest, gnawing viciously at his accelerating heart. _But I lied to you… _he mused bitterly. _I'm a liar, Iruka. A big, bad, ugly liar… but I had to do it. I had to…_

Kakashi noticed the pained look Naruto tried to hide, but he did nor said nothing then, it was something the younger boy had to overcome himself, if he wanted to be relieved from those pain, then he had to confess the truth to his guardian, no matter how awful and painful it was. Sighing, Kakashi stood. Speaking of that, he got to go and make sure his dear cousin didn't do anything reckless to relieve his own unstable emotion…

"Thank you very much for the delicious tea, Iruka-san, but I'm afraid I have to go to the office now, or _my boss_ will be furious." Kakashi uttered as he stood.

Suddenly, Naruto also stood, disappointment misted his face. "A-already?" he asked, almost resembled a plea.

The older man smiled soothingly. "Yes, Naruto, _I_ have to go now. You can stay here tonight, I'll pick you up tomorrow. Good bye, Iruka-san, don't worry, you don't need to escort me, I can help myself. Or perhaps, Naruto would like to escort me to the front door?" he asked politely. Naruto glanced at his guardian, and Iruka nodded in approval.

In the front door, after Naruto had made sure Iruka was not around, he spoke to Kakashi in somewhat befuddled tone. "_I can stay here tonight?_ Are you kidding me?"

Kakashi bent his body to help himself sliding his feet into the shoes. "No, I don't." he mumbled, and brought his head up. "Or you don't want to stay?"

"_No_—no, of course I want to, but—but what about Sasuke? He didn't say anything about allowing me to stay overnight." Naruto said, his face fell ashen as he did so.

After he had managed to slide both of his feet into the shoes, Kakashi faced Naruto in full force. "Don't worry, I'll persuade him, just enjoy your time with your family tonight, Naruto, leave it all to me." He smiled as he patted the blonde's head.

"Well, gotta go, now! Sasuke can be so scary sometimes, you know!" Kakashi exclaimed as he waved his hand to Naruto, while walking toward the black Benz, where Ren had been waiting for him by the backseat door.

Naruto waved back at him and shouted. "Thank you!!"

Kakashi laughed and waved some more, and entered the car, still waving at the blonde through the windowpane, before the car moved away, and slowly disappeared from vision.

Naruto sighed, and closed the front door.

"He already left?" Asked a gentle voice behind him, it was Iruka's.

"Yeah." Naruto mumbled softly, before he swirled on his heels, grinning. "Iruka, I'm kinda tired so… I'll be in my room, sleeping, if you want something, just wake me up, 'kay?" he muttered cheerfully, before he headed to his bedroom, without waiting for Iruka's reaction.

Naruto entered his old small room with some creaking voice coming from the opened door. Glancing around his old room, he inhaled the unpleasant scent of rotting wood, most likely because of the humid air dominating the small space of his room. Naruto sat on the bedside, small creaking noise emerged as he lowered himself, pressing his weight against the single bed. Naruto glanced at his surrounding blankly, the old wooden desk, the small chair, and the wooden drawer had been placed exactly as when he last left, Iruka must've cleaned it because he found no dust dirtied the hard surface.

Naruto grunted incoherently, before he let himself fell to the bed, blue eyes staring at the narrow ceiling.

He had angered Sasuke this morning, had he? And for some illogical reasons too… Just because he couldn't control the raging emotion—caused by the memories of his dream, about those foul voices that rang in his head, he was powerless before his own mind. And had hurt Sasuke in return.

Ah, not to mention that he had _lied_ to Iruka, to the man who had raised him. And _God_—he was _weak_, he was too powerless to tell the truth to the sweet man, Naruto knew he couldn't bear to see Iruka's hurtful expression, betrayed, his—his _rejection_. What will become of Naruto if Iruka rejected him? Naruto just didn't want to hurt anybody, yet, he'll end up hurting them later, once they know the awful truth.

Sasuke and Iruka…

God—Naruto never knew remorse hurt this much.

-------------

To be continued!

**A/N :** Confused by Naruto's behavior? Let's just make it simple; Naruto was still in shock with his first time (and second) with Sasuke, and it caused pressure for his mental state. To put it bluntly, Naruto is mentally unstable right now, he became very sensitive over small things, and couldn't control his emotion... Because he had nightmare the night before, he became extremely sensitive, know what I mean? I think I gave a rather confusing explanation before... so, Naruto is having denials and self-doubting, he's confused with everything. If you have a question, just ask!

And um… review::puppy dog eyes:: Oh, my email account is still error, I can't enter it at the moment and can't read the PMs that had been sent to me, so please write all you wanna say into your review.

Ja, Mata Ne!


	10. Chapter 10 : Memories

**Disclaimer :** Who cares 'bout Kishimoto? If only _I_ was the one who own Naruto, it'll be the _best_ Yaoi manga _ever_ created! I might not own him yet, but I will. Oh yes, I _will_.

**A/N :** …done. –takes a deep breath- DONE! ALL DONE! _**FINALLY**_! The midterm exams had finally finished! XD APTP had been in temporary hiatus since January 8 by the authoress in order to gather concentration and focus on the midterm exams, I've been restricting myself from touching my computer (and web life) and writing fanfics, but I am utterly happy to say, that I am now **back** into the business! XD I'm very sorry, my dearest readers and reviewers, also to those who had showered me with (lovely) death threats, for making you all wait for _so_ long…I will try my best to cover the loss.

Extra long chapter, make up for the whole two months of waiting, ne? Warning; too lazy to go back and reread the story, beware of grammatical errors.

----

**Chapter 10 : Memories**

It was a dim night.

Naruto walked down the bright hall alone. Beads of tears created small rivulets as it strayed down his reddened cheeks, splattering to his shirt and hands which he used to wipe it away. He was scared, he didn't know where he was, he didn't know where he had to go, which direction he should chose, he didn't know.

He couldn't see the way because the tears began misting his eyesight, he rubbed it hard and wiped it away, but new beads formed as soon as the last vanished. He cried hard, but silently. He was scared of this place, it smelled weird, he couldn't hear a sound, and there was nobody around him to ask for help, he was alone and he didn't like it.

"M-mommy…" Naruto whimpered softly, "Mommy, w-where are you? Naru's scared… mommy…"

He tripped on a hole in a cracked porcelain tile, and fell to the ground. His body quivered by the impact and he burst in loud cries because it hurt, his chin felt hurt, and his knees bleed, and the rough material of the jeans he wore made it worse. He fell and got hurt, but there was no one to help him, there was no mommy.

At that moment, he remembered his mother's advice that a boy should be able to stand on his feet by himself, without a help. He remembered his mommy told him every time Naruto came home with wounds he got from either fighting with another kids, or got hurt when he was playing. Mommy told him to be strong. Mommy wanted Naruto to be strong.

So Naruto had to be strong.

The little boy sucked on air as much as he could, he tried to hold his tears back, and he stopped whimpering. Using his quivering hands, he pressed it against the cold floor and pushed. He managed to raise a half of his body, but a sudden jolt of pain bolted through his body as his bleeding knees got in contact with a sharp edge of a shard from the cracked tile. He dropped his knees as he gasped in pain, only to have the edge dug deeper and it created a gaping wound.

Naruto cried out and felt hot tears escaping his lids as he closed them. It hurt, much worse than before. In agony, the boy overlooked to his wounded knee, frightened to see blood began creating a microscopic pond on the floor beneath it, little bullets of red fluid fell from the open wound.

More tears fell as he whimpered softly, trying to hold the pain. But it hurt. It hurt so much he wanted to quit. But another one of his mother's sayings came to his mind, his mommy told him he had to be strong so he won't have to depend on others, when he fell and no one could help him, he only had himself to rely on.

Naruto sucked on air again.

The second attempt had been a complete agony. The little boy tried to push his body up, trying to move his feet but another keen pain prevented him, every time he tried to move the injured knee, the shard seemed to cut him wider, not wanting him to get up. But he had to. Because Naruto was a strong boy.

He couldn't use the right feet, so he used the other. His palms supported his upper body weight as he slid the front of his shoe forward, carefully eased its sole on the floor. His arms and feet quivered at the sharp pain, but he tried to ignore it. He closed his eyes to prevent the tears from slipping out.

Naruto pushed.

The boy managed to uphold his body, but he had to lie his hands on the white wall. He tried to move, but it was a very hard thing to do. The wounded knee swayed in askew as he hopped. It still hurt, but it wasn't as much as before. He hopped around like a little rabbit, each hop struggling to restrain the pain, until he reached a familiar hall he and his mommy used to cross a lot. He remembered his mommy told him she worked in a place called 'hospital' and she usually played in a room called the nurse's office. Naruto hopped a little and he smiled. He couldn't wait to see his mother and tell her that Naruto had been a good boy and that he could 'stand on his feet all by himself' like mommy told him to.

She would be proud.

Naruto opened his eyelids slowly, and a dark ceiling met his gaze. He blinked the last vestiges of dream away, collecting his senses, before he moved his body to get up. Seconds later, he realized he wasn't able to.

One, two, three, and identical four and five bodies were draped on his own, each of them curled close, searching for warmth produced by Naruto's body. A bundle of strawberry-blond hair curled to his left thigh, while another bundle of pale blond curled to his right. Identical bundles of emerald each curled on each of his side, using Naruto's upper arms as pillows. And the last bundle of snowy white cuddled against his chest, sighing contently as she slept.

Realizing he couldn't move an arm, Naruto sighed and gave in.

He looked around and noticed they were in the children's room, vaguely remembered they had made him promise to sleep with all of them that night. Iruka had to pull out five futons from the cupboard. Funny he found them all over him when he awaked, while they supposed to sleep in a row, like Naruto had last checked before he went to sleep himself.

Was this what they call a 'night attack'?

Naruto carefully slid one of his arms off of Chirei's head, meeting difficulties because each of his limbs was caged in human chain. He placed one of the twins' head on the futon gently, feeling numbing stiffness in his freed left arm. He then used the freed hand to lift Yuurei's head on his right, then slowly eased it to the soft cushion. His arms were now free. Naruto silently lifted the small weight on his chest and got up, cuddling the little girl against his chest, getting up stealthily and quietly so he wouldn't accidentally hurt the other two near his legs.

After he had placed the children back to their rightful futons, Naruto flexed his drowsy muscles and relaxed, sighing sleepily. Really, the children had a frightening power to fool people with their innocent faces so they could slowly torment them in their sleep.

Actually, Naruto didn't mind. They were too _adorable_, his siblings.

His family.

Naruto fought back an ominous feeling, and instead, leaning down to place kisses on their foreheads. He pulled away and stared at them, the beautiful sleeping forms of his brothers and sisters, they looked so peaceful.

There were times when Naruto just wanted to go on a vacation with his siblings and father for a whole day, but in the past he couldn't. He had to work and sometimes didn't have time to take the kids play at the park. And now, in his current situation, the chance to even meet with them after this was nearing a non-existent. He had to go when morning came.

"Ichiro…Kazuna…Yuu…Chi…Yuki…Oniichan loves you." He whispered softly, though the words fell to deaf ears, he only wanted to say it. Quietly, Naruto stalked out.

He went downstairs to his room, Naruto sighed as he stood by the door, exhaling deeply. The dream he experienced, the memory he thought had forgotten long ago, surfaced again in a form of a dream. Naruto was surprised he still remembered a memory from years ago, when he was still a five-year old kid. When his mother was still around and sound.

Naruto knew not of his birthfather. His mother, Kushina, had never spoken of him. When the boy asked, she only smiled and said, "He always look over us." Naruto could only presume he already passed away, so his mom was too sad to tell him. A fatherless child who only recognized his mother made Naruto grew fond of Kushina, who he saw as a strong, independent woman, a most capable single-parent. He loved her and always did what she told him, she was the only one he had.

Naruto opened the door and went inside. He didn't bother to switch on the light, and just proceeded to sit on the bed. He sighed deeply, plopping his back to the bed with a fluent 'thump'. It felt strange he suddenly remembered of his long-deceased mother, maybe it was because of the dream? Possible.

Naruto remembered the last words she gave to him before she left him forever. '_Be strong'_, she said with a weak voice, he remembered how pale she looked, how a previously healthy, strong woman reduced to nothing but a fleshless body, covered only by a layer of skin, from a cancer that eating her body away bits by bits. '_don't be afraid of the future, do what you think is right and what your heart tells you. And—'_ Naruto paused for a brief second, quietly thinking of the continuation of his mother's last message. It was something sounded like…

'…_And don't regret the things you've done in the past, even if it is wrong. Don't throw away the rotten fruit, live to repair the blemish, not to do nothing but weeping.'_ He remembered she smiled at Naruto, a lively, content smile, as if she wasn't sick, she didn't look like a woman in her dead bed. He remembered how beautiful she looked at that time. 

'_Be strong, Naruto, even if I'm not with you anymore, I'll always be with you, I'll always watch you.'_ She said weakly. _'I never regret the day I have you growing in me, Naruto. I love you..'_

And she closed her eyes and she's gone. She looked so peaceful Naruto thought she was asleep. He remembered he cried for three days and three nights, until there were no more droplets to shed. He was only a six-year old boy around that time, he didn't have an idea what his mommy was telling him, he only cried.

And now, thirteen years later, Naruto had begun to realize the meaning behind her words. The basic principle she taught him; Be strong. It had been so long, Naruto had forgotten them. He was afraid of the future because he didn't know where and how it would lead him. He was scared when Sasuke forced himself on him. He regretted his actions because it felt so wrong that he lied, that he allowed his body for money. He regretted because he'd enjoyed it.

And he was ashamed.

Naruto noticed the dampness he felt on his cheeks, and he raised his hand to touch it. It was tears, he had been crying. He realized he had been stupid, he was weak because he was scared and he regretted what he had done. It wasn't supposed to be this way, he had to be strong, for himself, for his family.

Naruto got up.

He wiped the tears away, and stalked to an old cabinet beside his bed. He opened the top drawer after he'd unlocked it first. He lowered his hand in and searched, drawing out a small wooden box. He sat on the bedside, and opened its lid. A blue crystal necklace. It was his mother's inheritance after she passed away, the only one Naruto still possessed.

Naruto eyed the crystal clear gem in the middle, idly recalled how the color resembling his eyes', how it looked like a dazzling treasure when he saw his mother wore it around her neck. To him, his mommy was a princess. The one after she died, he didn't dare to look at, because of the unbearable memories. So he kept it hidden in his drawer for so long.

Naruto put it on.

He knew he was still a weak child, but he had to be strong. The necklace would remind him of his mother's words, and hopefully, it would help him gather his senses back.

'_don't be afraid of the future, do what you think is right and what your heart tells you.'_

He had to stop daunting the unknown. He shouldn't because he was the one who chose the path of his life, not the future chose for him.

'_And don't regret the things you've done in the past, even if it is wrong. Don't throw away the rotten fruit, live to repair the blemish, not to do nothing but weeping.'_

Naruto brushed away the last remaining of the tears. He decided he would live his life, as the way he had chosen himself. He'll live to repair his wrongdoings.

'_Be strong, Naruto, even if I'm not with you anymore, I'll always be with you, I'll always watch you.'__She said weakly.__'I never regret the day I have you growing in me, Naruto. I love you.'_

He smiled, fingering on the crystal. "I love you too." He murmured.

_I'll make you proud, mom._

--------

The dimness of that night also dawned to another.

When he got out of the elevator, darkness met the only functional eye. The penthouse he entered was huge, it was wide stretched and rows of furniture neatly and beautifully arranged. Too bad he didn't see some _color_. Most in monochrome of black and white, or dark blue. The room was dark and it seemed dead. 

Kakashi carefully stalked into the house, the elevator behind him making a 'ding' sound before it closed mechanically. He grabbed a hold on a few firm objects along the way occasionally, almost stumbling two to three times on his way. The fact that the darkness blinded him and he was exhausted and sleepy from hours of searching, finally caught him up. Perhaps, his _age_ was catching up with him.

He carefully stepped into a room he presumed to be a study, unlike the others, it was lightened by a dim lamp on the desk. Kakashi sighed, at least he didn't have to bump onto things again.

"At last, I found you," He said tiredly, eying at a shadow of a person who stood by a wide window that overlooked the sight of the whole town in the night beneath. "I've been searching for you all over the place, you know. Think of my position as your assistant for once, Sasuke."

Sasuke didn't reply, seemingly too preoccupied by the beautiful sight.

"_Sasuke_." Kakashi called him again, annoyed.

Sasuke paused for a minute, before he responded to his demand. "…what?"

Kakashi sighed deeply, placing a palm on his aching temples. "Explain why you weren't in the office today."

Sasuke cast a brief glance over his shoulder, replying with an enigmatic tone of voice uncaringly. "Taking a day off."

"…and what makes a workaholic like you, who scarcely took even a _half_ of a day to rest his mind, even when you were sick, suddenly took a liberty of _taking a day off_?"

Sasuke didn't respond for quite a long time. 

"Sasuke?" Kakashi called warily.

"…it's none of your business." The younger Uchiha said, giving him a cold shoulder.

Kakashi snapped. 

"Stop being a _damn_ brat!" He shouted indignantly, grabbing at Sasuke's shoulder and brusquely turned him around. "Can't you see I'm worried about you? You're not _alone_, Sasuke, stop being so selfish!"

Kakashi panted from his breathless spats, but the younger man in front of him merely stared at him with an enigmatic expression closed to his face, as if he hadn't hear a word. Frustrated, Kakashi increased his grip and pushed him further to a wall beside them.

"Was it because of Naruto?" He asked in a half-howling way, he was fed up with Sasuke's selfish behavior. "Just because he rejected _you_, Sasuke, like nobody else had, you withdraw to a corner and _sulk_? That's why you didn't show up in the office and got me in panic, looking for you all over the place, like searching a needle from a pile of straws?"

Sasuke didn't answer.

"You're pathetic, Sasuke." He continued, "Just because you are an Uchiha, you think you could do whatever you want, without caring for another person's feelings. I know you're still sad of your parents' death, but—"

Kakashi was shut and his body went stiff as two dark eyes flashed merciless crimson met his gaze. The previously lifeless orbs now filled with heated emotions like he had never exhibited before.

"It has nothing to do with my parents." He uttered coldly, Kakashi vaguely noticed the anger in his tone. "I am tired, and need a rest. Sometimes even a workaholic like me needs one, you should've known better, Kakashi. And about Naruto…" He paused.

"…It seems I've been too soft. That slave is forgetting his place, I will punish him when he returns. He needs to learn how to be obedient." He said, his face stayed indifferent. Using a hand, he slapped away Kakashi's loose grips. He briefly straightened his wrinkled front and collar, before began walking away from the elder.

"And you," He added, turning half-way to Kakashi. "As a Hatake, you know you're not supposed to do this to us, your superiors. But I shall overlook it this time, don't hope for another, next time."

"I'll go to the office tomorrow, if you really need to know." And then, quietly, Sasuke stalked out of the study, closing the door as he vanished from the view.

Kakashi stood wordlessly.

It was a song that broke the frozen tension, melodious tunes that came from Kakashi's cellphone. Aware, he quickly fished out the mechanical gadget from his pocket, placing it near his left ear and spoke.

"Hello? Kakashi Hatake is speaking….oh, it's you." A sheer relief suddenly washed his entire body and Kakashi felt his feet lost its previous strength, causing him to slump down to his feet. He was panting quite erratically, seconds later he just realized his heart were beating hard.

The person on the other side of the line spoke.

"…no, I'm okay, don't worry." Kakashi ensured, clutching at the front of his shirt, his body trembling. The person spoke again. "No, really…it's nothing…I was just…" He paused to collect some breaths.

"I…I'm sorry," He professed softly, lolling his head back and the curtain brushed against his hair, a hand clutched at silver bangs. "I hurt Sasuke. I've said awful things, I know he was tired and wasn't in mood to talk, but I—I don't know, I guess it's because I'm so tired…things at work driving me insane, so I unconsciously…said a taboo subject to him."

Kakashi sighed deeply. Things about his parents always angered Sasuke, he didn't like talking about them even to his own family member, much less to stranger. It was a sensitive topic, a taboo. And he had mentioned it in his tantrum, that's why Sasuke got angry. He always reacted in the same fashion every time the subject was touched.

"…….well, it was because of the kid I told you before. They had a fight this morning…but it wasn't his fault. You know Sasuke, he got irritated so easily, and now it's my fault he… I'm sorry, and when I'm supposed to take care of him while you're away…" The person spoke again.

Kakashi nodded slightly. "His name is Naruto Uzumaki. He's a good kid, he's from a good family, but unfortunately poor. He has a quite adorable guardian, though…" A smile expanded on Kakashi's lips as he recalled of the well-mannered man he met just this morning. Iruka seemed so kind and gentle, Naruto must've loved him enough to make him sacrificed himself for his sake. He was raised in such a loving family.

"…and he's… different… from Sasuke." He added. "…it's like seeing the complete opposite of him. He's like a ball of sunshine, while Sasuke could be said as a moon… they're very different."

_A boy who doesn't recognize love, and a boy who sacrificed himself to protect the love itself… that's the biggest difference between them._ Kakashi mused silently. _Perhaps he could melt the ice that had solidified Sasuke's heart for so long._

Kakashi laughed. "……what? Oh sorry, nothing is funny, I was just thinking." He said, staring off to space. "What is it that I was thinking? It's nothing important."

_He might be able to teach Sasuke how to appreciate those around him. Teach him how to love._

A smile expanded widely. "You know, Itachi. Maybe I'm just a Hatake, not an Uchiha, but I won't leave Sasuke." He said, "He's like a little brother to me too. I'll assist you to support him."

_Perhaps it is only a low-rated chance, but…_

"…yes, I love him too."

There was always hope.

----------

The midnight went like a sheer hell, cultivating utter exasperation as hours of searching flew behind, but not a single trace did they found. A bluish white-haired man shouted at a group of guys to search at the night district, while he ordered the other to search in the downtown. Both groups didn't waste time and immediately left after they've been ordered. The man in charge was left alone in a dark alleyway.

"Damnit!" A metal trash bin was being kicked forward, it fell with a loud clacking noise and rolled down along the ground floor. Suigetsu fluently cursed as he kicked its partner, and it fell in the same fashion, the insides spurt out.

A shadow of another man came up. "Don't pour your anger in such a likely place, Suigetsu."

The rough man whipped his head to the source of the voice, and the person stepped out of the shadow covering him, graceful silver hair glistened in the light met his gaze.

Suigetsu huffed indignantly, "Better than killing some worthless dogs, isn't it?"

Kimimaro tilted his head and rolled his eyes incredulously. "Fun for you is sick. I came here to report that I couldn't find Sai in the North and East, Juugo also told me he hadn't seen him at the under." He informed, crossing his arms as he sighed tiredly.

"Shortly, we still haven't found a shit." Suigetsu concluded. "Fuck, where the hell is he?" He cursed aloud, banging a fist to a wall nearby, almost cracking his knuckles.

"What merit did cursing and whining could give? Stop acting like a child who lost his toy. You need to be calm if you want to solve this and get Sai back in the picture." The silver-haired man calmly reasoned. For a minute Suigetsu stopped his ranting.

"And did you have any idea?" He narrowed his eyes daringly, Kimimaro only replied with a more challenging gaze.

"In the matter of fact, I do." He said.

Suigetsu almost immediately shot up. "What? Tell me!"

"Could you stop shouting so loud? You're destroying my ear drums." He said distastefully. "Alright, listen. The last time we saw him, we were persuading Orochimaru, but before it was over, you know he left the scene alone. Now I tell you, he was going to meet with Naruto that night."

"Naruto?" Suigetsu uttered, "Why did he go to him?"

"Personal business." Kimimaro said, slightly looking away. "Sai was returning his stuff which Orochimaru stole, that's all you need to know. I think we should go pay a visit and ask him." He concluded.

Suigetsu smirked. "Good idea. Been a long time since I last saw that kid, kinda missed him."

"…don't try to do anything unnecessary, I'll go with you."

"What a killjoy." Suigetsu huffed.

----------

The morning came quickly, and Naruto waked up by loud shouts stabbed in his ears sharply. 

"Naru-nii! Wake up, wake up!" Yuu exclaimed jovially, shaking him on his right side.

"Or you'll miss breakfast! It's egg and bacon!" Chirei also exclaimed with as much vigor, pushing him on his left side.

"Chi, Yuu! Don't do that to nii-chan, you'll make him sick!" Ichiro warned them timidly, attempting to grab them and drag them away, but the twins slipped away easily, causing the twelve-year old to lose balance and collapsed against Naruto's chest.

"Umph!" The oldest blonde gasped as a weight fell to him, an elbow dug into his ribs.

"Ah! S-sorry, nii-chan!" Ichiro said apologetically, hurriedly removing his body from Naruto's stomach, when he suddenly stopped and gasped surprisedly. "Wh-? Where's my glasses? I can't see!" He exclaimed, hands flailing around randomly in desperate attempt to search for his missing spectacles.

"Yuu, look! I found a shiny pair of glasses; whose do you think it is?" One of the twins said, fingering on Ichiro's spectacles he'd picked from the floor a second ago. A feigned questioning displayed on his face.

An identical face mimicked his expression. "Oh! I think it's belong to our big brother, Chi! Should we return it?"

"Yes!" Ichiro's desperately cried, blinking his eyes several times to search for the twins' location. But the scenery around him was so blurry, that he didn't have an idea.

"…we think not!" The twins chorused teasingly. Ichiro's face turned horrified.

"We found it first, after all."

"Finder's keepers!"

"So it's not yours anymore, it's ours!" Laughing maniacally, the twins rushed out of the room, intending to leave the helpless boy, until they bumped onto Kazuna in their great escape, which only reached by the door sill.

"Having _fun_?" The blonde girl smiled radiantly, cradling Yuki in her arms. The twins were frightened. Ichiro was saved.

Naruto laughed hard as Kazuna tweaked the twins' ears, scolding at them with her thunder-like voice. He had never felt happier since the night when he bid his body away, he had never felt so relaxed. The things happened to him yesterday and the day before, and the day before that seemed like a mere nightmare to him, but Naruto fully realized that it wasn't. He couldn't run away. He had to keep his words and face the reality.

The whole morning went smoothly and peaceful. The twins, as usual, acted up again and began stealing Ichiro's sausage slices, Kazuna scolded at them, Iruka was cooking, while Naruto fed Yuki with some scrambled eggs and rice. It was very peaceful.

It only lasted short. After breakfast, Iruka left to drive the children to school, and Naruto was left alone in the house, waiting for someone—most likely Ren—to come and get him. Though Naruto didn't regret a thing because he already gave Iruka the money to make sure he left without a worry. The only thing he regretted was that he still hadn't told him the truth.

And he still hadn't apologized to Sasuke.

An hour later, Iruka was back, and so his escort, Ren, was already in front of the house, requesting for his presence in the car.

"So… you have to leave." Iruka uttered disappointedly, as Naruto bade his farewell.

"I have to, that money I gave you, it's… I-I borrowed it from an acquaintance, and I have to… to work at his place until I could pay it back." Naruto lied.

The brunette smiled, drawing his hand up and patted the unruly spikes. "I know, I know. Thank you very much, Naruto… Now I don't have to worry again. All thanks to you." He murmured gently.

"…Iruka." 

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry." 

The older of the two raised his eyebrows curiously, "For what?" He inquired.

Naruto overlooked at his feet. "Everything," He said. "I'm sorry… I couldn't be with you." _…and I'm sorry I lied to you_. Naruto added mentally.

"Oh, Naruto…" Iruka pulled at Naruto's shoulders and gently placed his head against his chest, like a little boy would to his mother. Iruka patted his head soothingly, "It's okay, as long as you're alright and healthy, it's fine by me you want to go wherever you want. We'll always wait for you here; this house will always be your home. As a family, my son…"

Naruto closed his eyes and breathed in Iruka's warm scents, he returned the embrace, before he pulled away, staring at the man he thought as father. 

"Make sure you send us some news occasionally, okay? And visit us when you have time." Iruka said.

"I know. Thanks dad." Naruto smiled.

Naruto didn't glance back as he walked away, if he did, he knew it would be unbearable to leave his foster dad. He bowed his head and grasped the blue crystal hung on his chest tightly, while his heart was breaking underneath it. He approached the black car where Ren had been standing by the farthest passenger seat's door, waiting for him.

Realizing Naruto was close enough, he bowed his head slightly, and greeted. "Good morning, Naruto-san, do sleep well last night?" He asked politely.

"Pretty much." Naruto answered, _minus the time I caught them mushing on me…_

"I'm glad to hear that." Ren said, "Sasuke-sama is requesting for your presence inside, Kakashi-sama is accompanying him too."

Naruto felt his body got electrocuted. Sasuke was requesting his presence, Sasuke was inside the car right now. Did he want to talk about Naruto's misbehavior yesterday? Ren's voice calling for him broke his train of thoughts, he looked over, and saw Kakashi's head peeked out of the lowered window, he also caught a glimpse of Sasuke's cold expression.

"Good morning, Naruto! How's your sleep?" Kakashi asked radiantly, smiling soothingly.

Naruto sighed in relief, at least Kakashi was being cheerful and it really raised the tense atmosphere. "It was great, I slept well and we had breakfast together." Naruto answered, forcing a grin.

"Ah, good, good. Glad to hear that." Kakashi said, his only visible eye searching around and fell to Naruto's house, but the person he was looking for wasn't there. "So…how's your guardian doing?"

"Iruka?" Naruto raised an eyebrow. "He's fine, why did you ask?"

"Ah, nothing." Kakashi easily encountered. "Well, hop in, don't be shy."

Naruto hesitated, but Ren already opened the door for him, and he quietly stepped in, settling beside Kakashi. He stole a glance toward the Uchiha, but he acted as if he hadn't seen him, he couldn't see him well because Sasuke was facing at the other side.

It was at that time, a sudden wave of discomfort pulsing in his stomach again. Like yesterday, an ominous feeling of remorse came back in full force, Naruto wanted to apologize, but he couldn't muster the words as if it were stuck in his throat. Clutching the crystal with one hand, he slowly opened his mouth.

"Sa—"

"Naruto." Sasuke finally spoke, still looking away. "I never recall permitting you to call me by my first name outside. We'll talk this at the home later, as slave and master." He said in a cold, indifferent tone of voice, as if he was talking to a lifeless stone, he even refused to look at Naruto while he talked.

Naruto was defeated and angered, but he hid it behind his silent. He did have hurt the Uchiha, so he didn't have the right to be angry. He felt a hand patted his shoulder and he turned to Kakashi, who smiled apologetically at him. He smiled back.

The car began to move away from the house, Naruto stared at the orphanage with longing within his blue eyes. As it vanished from view, he pulled his gaze and braced himself. He recalled the dream he had last night, and his mother's necklace around his neck.

'_don't be afraid of the future, do what you think is right and what your heart tells you.'_

'_And don't regret the things you've done in the past, even if it is wrong. Don't throw away the rotten fruit, live to repair the blemish, not to do nothing but weeping.'_

'_Be strong, Naruto'_

Naruto breathed in deeply.

_I will._

---------

The car rushed across the empty street, intending to leave the neighborhood. A motorcycle, in the other hand, rushed in an excessive speed, about to enter the neighborhood. The man in front had bluish white hair stuck out of his helmet and flew wildly behind him, the other man in the back had a long, silvery hair flowed beautifully by the strong wind.

"How much further?" Suigetsu asked.

"Turn left at the corner and we'll be there in a minute." An answer came.

"Gotcha."

Suigetsu drove his motorcycle and sharply turned left, in almost the same time, a luxurious-looking car turned right in the opposite road. They met side by side. The wind blew hard, it made Kimimaro to face the car to avoid dusts, he blinked his eyes opened and saw.

Blond spikes and clear blue eyes slowly vanished from behind an ascending window, Kimimaro could hardly saw the entire face, but the pristine blue eyes and familiar blond spikes reminded him of someone he knew.

"Naruto…?" 

----------

TBC…

**A/N :** A long chapter with a cliffy by the end. Am I cruel of what? Sorry I keep you all waiting! I hope you enjoyed this chapter too. As for everyone who had been reviewing this little story of mine until this tenth chapter, I thank you all, SandmanAndKitsune loves you! XD And I miss my reviewers soo bad! And in respond of a lovely message I got from **Nemu Ame**, yes, dear, I've miss you too! x) I'm working on ST first because it's nearing its end, around two or three chapters more, so please wait for a bit, 'kay:)

Sincerely yours,

Zahra i.e. SAK

Ja, Mata!


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